The Wakeful Closet Door

The Wakeful Closet Door

Original Text

Wayne Cifford. The Book of Were. Erin, Ontario: Porcupine’s Quill, 2006.

1A homonym can be revealing:
2To bear’s the verb nose-rung with feeling
3we drag forth muzzled with despair
4whenever fate lets out its mastiffs
5whenever rigour baits its fresh stiffs
6teasing them to prance.
7The shuffling, snuffling, shifting bear
8the shaman drew on wick-lit wall
9by flicker and by hope might swear
10recorded bear allows us all
11the bear we want by chance,
12for there’s in us a womb-clasped fear
13that wants held checked majestic bear,
14the god-thralled, man-masked, changeling bear,
15shackled to its dance.
RPO poem Editors
Jim Johnstone
RPO Edition
2013
Special Copyright

Poem used with permission of the author.