Indolent spinster weekly Report #6

This week's Indolent spinster Report has been hijacked by a poem i wrote 23 years ago, inspired by the Late great gord Downie of the Tragically Hip, my friend Andrew Davidson, and a third writer, Hugh MacLennan, who you may also have heard of, who inspired me, andrew and Gord very much with his definition of Courage.

photo of Gord from CBC

COURAGE {for andrew, gord, & hugh.}

lonelier than never   

              within 

my neck 

   my throat

      choke words

            hard

            suicidally so.

I am weary bleary and toothless.

In every mirror

         I see hopeless

               soft fat breath.   

And wetness.

Then

     somehow

thick white blood re:routes

                  an

                  other

path into my chest   

and the shit melts

in

  closely shaved rhythms   

                 or smiles

                    songs slither   

as delicate 

   as though

   I had swallowed a rose.

My breath is filled 

             with words and fear 

                            and 

                            clarity.

I drink to others who are   

angels dancing amidst                                         

               the hatreds of   

                           my soul 

                           my body

and the secret ethers of my dream 

                           my song

: I can only sing in side my self.

© Josie Boyce 2017 selected from the book "The Wickedness of Flowers."