This week’s piece is a stunning and haunting poem by Cid V Brunet about one of this millennia’s most horrible tragedies. As she walks us through this event’s impact on her family we are given a clear view of how September eleventh affected people through generations.
Nine Eleven
Two thousand one.
Nanny stood up compelled to freeze
history, un-
folding on her t.v.
Filtering fresh violence.
One extra lens.
This week’s post features a young voice from Etobicoke, Ontario, that of high school student Margaryta Golovchenko.
There is a quiet poise to Margaryta’s work that leaves space and breath for contemplation. She paints her images with a precision and depth of control that draws the reader skillfully into her vision.
Tea Leaf Metaphors
I watched a piece of chocolate
glide atop a black lake, infinite
in its own right.
See how it dissolves? There’s the Jordan
growing tentacles,
a phenomenon the aristocrats of old
have forgotten to make note of.
And there, that tiny
island staying afloat, a persistent babe
in its survival. Oh,
don’t tell me –
you’ve forgotten to leave a crumb trail
as you ran from Eden.
For this week’s post, WPN has expanded its geographical horizons, bringing you a wonderful piece of fiction from Canadian writer Barbara Biles. Biles’ work is reflective of ancient tales, drawing influence from Greek Mythology to parallel the way we live and love in the modern world. This short piece explores two generations of characters, all with their own ties to mythology and the Greek gods who have spawned them. You, the reader, are an active participant in this tale, being spoken to, almost in secret, about Silvia’s affairs and the speaker’s memories as she has grown over the years.
Silvia
Her hair was blond as a child then prematurely grey so that you thought of her as ash-blonde; beautiful but mature. In spite of her resolve to become a biologist she fell into the same trap as dozens of other girls of the sixties, believing the whole amusing idea of free love: equal opportunity to hop in the sack with no repercussions. So funny I forgot to laugh.
Silvia got pregnant the first time out and like her namesake, Rhea Silvia, who was seduced in the forest by the god Mars to become mother of Romulus and Remus, she bore twins thus ending her own concocted tale of perpetual virginity. In Silvia’s case the seduction was in the back of a Chevy Nova at the edge of Groat Ravine. She could end the resulting pregnancy or put her boys up for adoption. Unlike Rhea Silvia whose boys were set adrift on the Tiber River then rescued and suckled by the she-wolf Lupa, Silvia chose to stay with her Aunt Margaret in Toronto for a stint and from then on wondered what kind of life her boys might lead. Certainly not likely to create a city like Rome or commit fratricide.
Words, Pauses, Noises 