Given the Circumstances

Given the Circumstances

we all say now, in light of, as well
as can be, strange days, these
times.
The universe
has no short-term memory.
Each morning we have the grief-
work
of reminding the ravens,
the buried moles of our
losses
and because it’s spring,
the budding poplars, returning
house finches. Each dawn
we must tell the remade
world
our sorrows and
our worries. So
stay safe we
are also saying, and take
care
only this time
we mean something real.

About Susan Haldane

Susan Haldane lives on a farm near the northern boundary of Algonquin Park. Her chapbook Picking Stones is published by Gaspereau Press. Her work has appeared in a number of Canadian journals, and in the anthology Desperately Seeking Susans (Oolichan 2012). In 2019, she was thrilled to win the Magpie Award for her poem "A Short History of Space Travel." Her poem "Thin-Skinned" was selected for Best Canadian Poetry 2020.

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