agora
agora archive of published lines and poems on Linespedia.
"NEIGHBOURSThere were intense rivalries between the two countries.One cut the head off the other,the other invaded the oneand killed its women.They stopped speakingthe same languagethey stopped speakin..."
"COYOTE Coyote in the grass - a flight of light, light-footed, sleek, composed. Coyote in the grass - alert, bright-eyed, watching all that moves - moves like a plate of air over the field. Coyot..."
"NETHER SONG I believe there is a god of ice. I have found his glassy dung Across my path. I have breathed his sharpened breath. His tongue Tears away my sail. In my village a child died one win..."
"Clock talkTime the grammarian the dull versifier, Generalissimo of the beat of hearts and pulse of souls, Time wears thick-soled shoes, senses no pebbles on the road, no little you’s and me’s underfoo..."
"IT HAPPENED ONE DAY IN SCARBOROUGHHelicopteroid arguments tizzle around our headsAnd the bacon burns and the grease screams and we ignoreAnd somebody panicking calls the Relationship PoliceAnd they se..."
"Just Looking Thanks I am looking for the patron saint of concrete I am looking for the muse of aluminum I am looking for the next failed Messiah I am looking for God’s lost checkbook I am looking fo..."
"Critical Incident ReportOn Saturday October 20 2000 across the earlymorning sky of Southern Ontario the derelictremains of an Archangel fell to the earth.The hulk’s trajectory cut from west to east th..."
"Dying Woman It was as if a war had begun in her flesh A war always there, dark in the night with Flame subdued by medicine. “Could I have lived differently” she thought “Could I have done this Or ..."
"Feather It fell from the underside Of one of the many wings of God. Buffeted by stellar winds It strayed across the galaxies. In a billion years its pilgrimage Entered the backyard Of the Sun. It ..."
"BelievesShe believes rain is a bully.She believes she has a maxillofacial deformity.She believes records of her birth have been destroyed.She believes she has been excluded from a thousand lists.She b..."
"Exit WoundNo IHaven’t heardmuch about it latelythat’s a country somewherein Indochina isn’t it or maybesomewhere else I remember it wasin the newspapers when I was a kidsomething about guerrillas or b..."
"Casualty 23734-UShe lived within the ambit of her peopleAnd her people’s people.As a child she liked watching sunrise.At sunset she cried, thinking the worldHad gone away.Everyone in the villageLiked ..."
"God-MartGood morning.Thank you for calling God-Mart.How may we help you today?No, I’m sorry, our CEO cannot be reached through this line.May I help instead?No,I’m afraid we cannot kill your neighbourB..."
"COVENANTWithin the terms of this contractGod does not allow you to claim He will listen to you and to no one elseWithin the terms of this contractYou are expected to venerate Him but don’t get silly a..."
"LOCAL WOMAN IS 105:BRANDY AND MARMALADE THE SECRETsupermarket flyer editionPefferlaw BeaconJuly 20 1999She cameshe came here last weekshe came last week from the newspaperthe one that has the lighthou..."
"AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL THOSE WHO REMAIN ON THE PREMISESNoticeFor the convenience of our customerswe havewoven anonymous lives into blankets of anorexic calculuswe havecreated another centre ..."
"Most of all the vastness of it all. Two out of billions. Two of us in a little space become one in a smaller space intimate as the inside of an atom. And there the vastness of us all. Written Novem..."
"While she squatted in a polyethylene shackunder the viaductthe dream fell absent-mindedly from Gertrude’s brain.It rolled down the embankmentinto the pathof a pathological cyclistwho, awed by its odd ..."
"In Memoriam for the lost Canadians Remembrance Day 2001 My chum Reggie told me someone talked about the furnace of war. Someone who never saw a trench someone who never saw the worse part of a mu..."
"For Him For him love was a crime committed only once. He had loved her like air and water. She had loved him for a while. For him love was an act of being. For her love was strangulation. Sh..."
"Sgian Dubh When you collect whatever I may owe, Remember: I am heretics And warlocks, I contain the heat Of horrid pyres. I write a script In indecipherable tongues: Remember. And when you embark..."
"Actors Fine thin petals fall From you. You carry Flowers and razors In your mouth. At times Your open fingers Cut along my spine At times they simper Limpid songs. ..."
"We Try I try hiding in the dirt but you find me you disinfect me you pan me for gold you find icons in my skull you write me into your will you invite me home to meet the little demons at your fe..."
"Places There are places in you mysterious as grain and air and honey places hidden from the passing world places witnessed only by a pilgrim such as I. There are places in you still as a calm p..."
"Get A Life To him stars were merely asterisks punctuating a darkened page. To him trees and grass and moss were merely unknown fonts. To him women were merely undifferentiated in-boxes. To him chi..."
"Getting Through the Day Let there be truce. You in your armed camp me in my bastion. Let there be truce. Let our tongues talk words of false civility. Let us pretend we have no history or let..."
"Remnant “How do you tell a man who has removed the bodies of children nailed to walls that the world can ever be the same again?” (from a conversation with a readjustment counsellor for Canadian pea..."
"Parting of the Ways I did not think of us as people. No, I thought of us as gods driving through rainy nights to the City of Gods. I held the steering wheel. You ate your late night snacks absent..."
"Jeez I Love it / Hate It When This Happens The lovers proclaimed a state of love. Announcements were made to their assembled families. Legislatures of the soul Passed heartfelt resolutions of cong..."
"Time Talk The clock says trust me, things are as they ought to be. No. This is not true I say to the lying clock. You name and number me dismember me into my scattered parts and yet you cannot rec..."
"Omnicarapace Looking for the mica egg Looking looking looking looking For the cutmaking keening voice Under the molasses rituals Looking under the cloak of flesh For the nub of holiness inside the..."
"Reb Levi-Yitzhak of Berdichev in Synagogue Lord, here we congregate to learn – and You hide, You hide like a skulking cheat behind a circus tent. Lord, here we congregate to hear – ..."
"HARIJAN Alisha was born Gnarled and bungled On a workaday street. No one put a notice in the paper, No one sent pink new gifts. She was sent to special schools Where all were equally Ignored. She..."
"A Woman’s Guide to the Baggage Car Men do this. It is not right but men do this. They craft an angelic You white impossibly woman-white discarnate mother of all mothering an impossible You. They c..."
"She Who Walks With Weedjeewaugun do not walk before me do not walk behind me do not walk below me do not walk above me, walk with me Weedjeewaugun do not walk in fear ..."
"The Cipher He counts things. He knows how many bushels of hunger fill a Baltimore and Ohio boxcar. He knows the average weight of a horny August firefly. He knows how many blood vessels there are..."
"Wickthorpe Parish, circa 1592 On a windy night the cross blew off the steeple Killing Miles and Nigel Who were buggering each other In the bushes By the graves. Both were buried Out of holy gr..."
"The Absence of Pipers Will Seriously Impair The Tune I ask you to do simple things yet you do not do them I ask you to do impossible things yet you do not do them I ask you to do simply impossible ..."
"Binary Sometime you were born And sometime dreamed. You were incarnate Or so it seemed. Sometime you are dead Sometime alive. You will never make it Yet you will survive. Wreathes and condolenc..."
"Candlemas to her snuffing out the candle would be like choking her cat choking her lover the wax is almost gone some of it spread messy across the table top some of it shapeless most of it just co..."
"Guarantee I’ll do my best but I guarantee nothing. The galloping wind grasps the fettered farms in its unmothering arms. I’ll do my best but I guarantee nothing. She and I complain about the col..."
"He thought there are stones caught in the flux of us things we call true things we call right things we call ours things we call an antidote to night. Then he thought I will be finder and keeper of t..."
"Sacrifice He said take this cup away take it from my lips take it away take it give it to some other son of god. It shouldn’t be this hard to ransom all humanity it shouldn’t fall on a single set ..."
"Geotoy Great Child disassembled the entire rotting and regenerating mechanism bit by bit by byte by cog by cognizance into its constituents its gums its lips its gizzards its polychambered hearts it..."