for Zane Koss,
1.
A formulation of the language.
This gentle fog. My right eye, cataracts.
Surgical delay: pandemic,
lacuna. A hardtack
annum.
2.
Can see you, there. Resurface,
steel rail. Trace walls with fingertips.
Neither water
nor edge.
Late father’s slippers keep
my toes intact. Two breaks
are enough.
3.
The self, is. If you want a picture. Here
is what I believe.
As far as the eye. This
diversity of forms. The absence
is what stands.
Born in Ottawa, Canada’s glorious capital city, rob mclennan currently lives in Ottawa, where he is home full-time with the two wee girls he shares with Christine McNair. His most recent titles include a collection of short stories, On Beauty (University of Alberta Press, 2024) and the poetry collection World’s End, (ARP Books, 2023). He spent the 2007-8 academic year in Edmonton as writer-in-residence at the University of Alberta, and regularly posts reviews, essays, interviews and other notices at robmclennan.blogspot.com