Just Wondering

Upcycled Bunnykins necklace by Diane Redden

Upcycled Bunnykins necklace by Diane Redden

for Alex

The day you turned eighteen
snow froze to the ground,
a patchwork of chipped
ice and sienna grass.
Ditches gleamed and clouds
cracked to reveal shafts of wan
sun, pouring bitter lemon light.

Your words fell like snow, soft and cold.
They penetrated my skin.
“I won’t be home for my birthday next year,
will I, mom?”

I remember looking through
the bay window, seeing black
branches upon pearled sky
a raft of sparrow shadows and
the weeping mulberry
dripping icy tears

So much pride in you, but always
the burrowing sorrow, too.
I need to know:
what is the particular price
of a truth spent,

when extracted currency
is the viscera of letting go?

About Virginia Boudreau

Virginia Boudreau is a retired teacher living on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. She can often be found at the beach. Her poetry and prose have appeared in a wide variety of international literary magazines and anthologies, both in print and online. Most recent work has been published in The New York Times (Solver’s Column), Woods Reader, Salt and Wild Anthology, Agnes and True, Grain, The New Quarterly, and Palette Poetry. She recently completed her first poetry manuscript, twenty years later than planned.

About Diane Redden

Diane Redden is a multimedia artist who was born and raised in Toronto, but moved to central Nova Scotia, near Truro, in 1990, where she still resides. She has worked with painting, drawing, jewellery making, website design, outdoor sign production, photography, paper mache, derivative artwork, fashioning sculptures from upcycled materials, and spinning and knitting custom made fibre products. Her work has been shown at the McCarthy Gallery and Marigold Gallery in Truro NS, (including an artist’s talk,) Swoon Gallery in Hammonds Plains, the Raven Gallery and Fraser Gallery in Tatamagouche, the Craig Gallery in Dartmouth, and the Winding River Art Gallery in Stewiacke. She was interviewed on the local program, Atlantic Journal in 2013, and her fibre goods, jewellery and coasters have sold in quality stores across the province. Diane is an active member of the Visual Arts Society of Nova Scotia, the Truro Art Society, and a juried member of the Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council. Please see more of Diane's work on her website.

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