shrimping: a postcard

shrimping: a postcard

Original Text

Dani Couture. Good Meat. Toronto: Pedlar Press, 2006.

1picture came
2yesterday, slipped as bait
3into the open mouth
4of my mailbox. the soft, fingered edges
5of foreign stationery, his signature
6lines & expressions unfurled
7like cold st. lawrence currents
8over my continental body.
9he is shrimping now, baiting hooks:
10a warm cement pool gouged
11into taichung's already choked lungs.
12caught white & heavy-handed
13in between a day-glo green rice patty
14& a dan bing stand. fisting a can
15of acidic chinese brew, he chats with locals.
16he, in search of anything. western
17hunger waning into a simple desire—
18the capture of a creature
19only capable of swimming backwards,
20away.
RPO poem Editors
Jim Johnstone
RPO Edition
2013
Special Copyright

Poem used with permission of the author.