Four Seasons

Susan Briscoe December 13, 2009 Four poems

1.

Spring
in the subtlest colours of winter:

faint pink of maple,
golden tinge of birch,

yet spruce almost black
against the whitest greys.

We wake to a field mouse,
soft brown fur and clean white belly.

I could skin the whole family,
stitch pretty mittens.



2.

The coyotes are coming down from the mountains
where the hunting has grown thin.

They set the valley dogs to barking, hard monotones
like stones the size for throwing.

Last year they got the cats, fattened
on a daily breakfast of birds. Their ambush

devised, practised, refined.
The clever executions: 

hard shakes, snapped …

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Winter

ISSUE 42 Winter 2011

online content:

also in this issue:

  • Getting Plowed

    by Selena Ross In this exclusive investigative report from Montreal, Maisonneuve exposes the bid-rigging, violence and sabotage at the heart of an unlikely racket: snow removal.
  • In the House of the Lord

    by Andrea Bennett The Jackson Avenue Housing Co-operative and the religious battle raging in one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods.
  • After Jack

    by Nick Taylor-Vaisey Last May, Jack Layton led the NDP to the greatest victory in party history. Now that he's gone, will the party be able to maintain its momentum?
  • [see full issue contents]