Poems - Part One

“On Tradition / Camping” by Francine Cunningham

Sometimes I get jealous when I listen to other people’s stories

Of their traditional upbringing, but then I think, they never had KFC

To hear some of my contemporaries tell it

They were raised on bush meat, fresh air and wild springs

They lived all traditional

I lived in the city

We went camping

In the driveway of my grandparents’ trailer park,

In the camper they drove when they sold at powwows

“The Brightest Thing” by Ruth Daniell

It’s a blue moon tonight. Remembering

The lunar eclipse years ago, the red moon

You held me under, you expect indigo,

Royal, peacock, sapphire. I explain, no,

The moon is just the full moon,

Second full moon in a month, pearl

As always, white…Disappointed,

You dress anyway, join my hand

With yours in the sleepy elevator,

Step past the plastic tropical ferns in the lobby,

Through the sliding glass door

And into the midnight air beside the lake

To stare up at the familiar moon,

Perfectly ordinary and rare.

“Z” by Fiona Tinwei Lam

Tiny zigzag on the snow

                                             Of the page, you add sizzle

                                                                                                         And fizz, a spritz

                                                                                          Of pizzazz to words

                                                                           You visit. Electric

                                                            Eccentric, you buzz

                                             Through Fuzz

                              Daze

               Doze

Snooze.

Plurals, possessives zip with your zest.

                              You never fizzle. Even at zero,

                                                                           You’re everyone’s thunderbolt!