David Groulx: I Have Killed Albatrosses

David Groulx

Speeding

I remember this speed

this is for you, for you

about you

and me

the speed we went

I remember

going past it all

the houses we lived

the animals we had

the sun coming

down on the water

everything was moving

moving past

.

the apples I picked

but couldn’t eat

buried in the land

and never getting to taste it

.

the mountains

speeding

wandering into the

prairie into the

water going past

.

all the plain

I baled too

ripping my arms

tearing my muscles

and dripping

skin into the field

the horses ate that winter

grew fat and then grew skinny

and sped away

went past

where I am now

I remember the 40 pounder you

gave me because I was thirsty

shared it with you

and people speeding by

I remember when your

father died and mine died too, now past

.

we loved them and left them

buried near the head frames of the

uranium mines

be near them again

A long ride we had from the fire

that brought it all down

.

this house where we

starved and crawled

past

my flesh burnt

still scarred

I looked at it

disappearing

still there

.

we are safe now

we went past

.

.

.

We Move Like Comets

We move like comets

on this highway

past this life

like road kill

.

these dark spaces

lit for seconds

none even aware

the seconds

pass by like comets

.

we move on

into the darkness

our eyes shut

our feet down

we move on move through

it all

we move through like

a plume of light

following the darkness

.

.

.

I Have Killed Albatrosses

These nights are piled up against the wall

they have no mercy on me

they lie there staring back at me

.

I am outnumbered

they will not speak back to me

.

only stare

.

the sun comes up

yet these nights wear on

.

they pile up

like

corpses

.

they will not let me sleep

.

I have killed albatrosses

.

I have killed albatrosses

and I look back at them with

my one broken eye

.

. 

.

Broken Sleep

All my sleep is broken

now

without you

the hurricanes rising up

now

Are you sleeping my dear

and I wonder where

you are

on this nightshift

with the lights still on

my blue

dreaming in the darkness

.

Last night you called me

to talk about our marriage

that all your sleep

is broken

and you are the only person I ever trusted

and the only place I ever felt safe

was blue

.

We’ve been to hell together

something we did to each other

and know the smell of heaven

we touched the bottom

and the sky

.

I still have the pictures

.

There were so many times

I failed you

let you down

promises I broke

and so many I kept

.

burning

blue

.

.

.

Changing Direction                                                                   

Will you watch me

go now

with your crippled father

still tied around your

hands

our lives change direction

like the wind

and some of us spin

like hurricanes until

we blow out

will you watch me

now living like asphalt

.

. 

.

Longing, The Ancient Night

Open this flesh

separate away the beginning

the end

end forever

take the music to your secret places

before the beauty disappears

Love is only memory

like this flesh

missing

a moment

a dream barely remembered.

.

My flesh calls you nightly

searches the surfaces of the night

for flesh

a flash

shimmer

a beginning.

.

It yearns

scratches at sleep

stretches out

across time and distance

.

a sigh

a moan

a word.

.

A body

rising

a silence

touching sulliedsullied

a hunger casting spells

become cannibal

.

this mouth

from this heart.

.

Sometimes speaks

.

Sometimes sings

David Groulx was raised in the Northern Ontario mining community of Elliot Lake. He is proud of his Aboriginal roots – his mother is Ojibwe Indian and his father French Canadian.

After receiving his BA from Lakehead University where he won the Munro Poetry Prize. David studied creative writing at the En’owkin Centre in Penticton, B.C. where he won the Simon J Lucas Jr. Memorial Award for poetry. He has also studied at The University of Victoria Creative Writing Program.

He has published six poetry books – Night in the Exude (Tyro Publications: Sault Ste Marie,1997); and The Long Dance (Kegedonce Press,2000). Under God’s Pale Bones (Kegedonce Press,2010), A Difficult Beauty  (Wolsak & Wynn:Hamilton2011), Rising With A Distant Dawn (BookLand Press:Toronto) as well as Our Life Is Ceremony (Lummox Press: California) due out in spring 2012.

David is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, as well as a member of The Ontario Poetry Society.

David recently won the 3rd annual PoetryNOW Battle of the Bards.

David recently read at the IFOA in Toronto & Barrie.

David’s poetry has appeared in a 120 publications in England, Australia, Germany, Austria, Turkey, India, New Zealand and the USA. He lives in a log home near Ottawa, Canada.