Jade Riordan’s poetry is a gentle exploration of a self lost in the clutter of words and things. Read December’s featured poet now.

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The Archives

I don’t think in facts.
When truth was left
on the shores of the dead
sea, I carved myself edges
to slow the bleeding
into the air around.

When truth was told—
a murmuration, a chaotic
echo of becoming
spoken at the prow
of this boat—we changed
course: set sail
for the sun. And

finally warm, finally able
to prove these beginnings
unworthy of their finales,

our almost bodies
combusted. In the end,
perceptions just concepts lost.
But I—an unreliable narrator,
the question in a conversation
with the self—would like to ask
where is the distortion?

(Just the facts please.)



~~~


What Ifs are Daydreams
defined by regret.
Like cloud cover.
Like desire made
monochrome. Like
meld or mold or
molder. Like firefly
jar without holes
poked in the lid.

Wait is weight
condensed. Same
density. Same burden.
Same beckon to
the animal of intent.
To the almost birdsong.
To the small, slow
hurts of wolf-thought
and worry and wither
and want. To wither
with want.



~~~


An Inkling Embodied XIX
Guest Room

Transitory. Quilt perfumed with no one
in particular. Family photos of people

unknown, closet stuffed with decade-old
band t-shirts, gnarly bowties, & shoe

-boxes bursting with handwritten love letters
(not for this girl). So she sits at the unfamiliar

desk & begins to type her own. Starts
with the name of this room/not-home;

auto correct suggests Guess Room
(a space of perhaps), Chest Room

(breath of air flares the floral curtains),
Ghost Room (at last, girl/guest recognized).

At last, girl/guest
/ghost recognized.

 
 
~~~
 
 
House of Belief

I stopped believing /
        in my body / instead imagined /
my / self / as day /
        light / or fire / fly or / glow
er / glow / ing /
                          can you / picture it / ?

picture this /
                          three ways / through
             / a window /

        one / pulling back / the curtain /
like hair from / a faith / less face
                 / two / water / ing the flow
         / er / box / or three
                                  / through the pane /

imagine / !
      a house / without / a single window /
an inhabitant with / no way to see
               / beyond their own day /

or / an inhabitant without / a house
        who is / really no inhabitant / at all /

               self with / out body /

I believe /
               this is my cue / to leave

   

   

Jade Riordan‘s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Blue Nib (IE), Cha (HK), Cordite Poetry Review (AU), Landfall (NZ), The Malahat Review (CA), and elsewhere. She lives north of Canada’s 60th parallel and volunteers as a selection committee member (poetry reader) with Bywords.