Tuesday, October 22, 2013

October Memoir and Backstory Challenge: roots #1


The next three entries this week are on the topic of "roots and wings". This first submission concerns my Sudbury, Ontario roots.

_______________________________
Sudbury

Licorice twist black rocks
scarred millions of years ago
as the earth ground itself
to a halt

Like the continents
I am stuck here
growing up in a barren environment
sulphur hanging in the air
like my grandmother's wash on the line

We can taste the work of the miners
everytime the Inco stacks exhale.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Great visuals. I see the stacks of black and then can almost breathe them in.

Joy Weese Moll (@joyweesemoll) said...

I like hanging in the air like the wash.

An environment that seems incompatible with roots and, yet, people have to find some way to be in that space.

Unknown said...

Hey, I didn't know you were from Sudbury! Great description, I remember it when it was like that, exactly. Have you been back recently, though? it's beautiful, now.

Unknown said...

Story of my life! You perfectly captured part of Sudbury's identity. Hopefully, you'll return for a visit some time and see the art and culture scene that's sprung up in the last five years.