now
The needle tenderly lands
on the record’s gentle ripples.
This evening is
that sticky salty
sunscreen thing.
It’s legs grown cold
but still in shorts anyway.
It’s women’s prerecorded voices
glazed and glassy,
and a low-hanging cloud of
hour-old sauteed onions:
both sweet and stinging.
The record issues a
sax note we all think
was the cat asking to be let out
for just a moment.
It’s the dissolution of an
impromptu barbeque evening
for three people who
became unexpected liferafts
for one another,
who never really knew
each other before this.
It’s a bountiful gratitude
no one expected.
The record ends,
the fan whirrs
it’s been a hollow day
but I still feel full.
on the record’s gentle ripples.
This evening is
that sticky salty
sunscreen thing.
It’s legs grown cold
but still in shorts anyway.
It’s women’s prerecorded voices
glazed and glassy,
and a low-hanging cloud of
hour-old sauteed onions:
both sweet and stinging.
The record issues a
sax note we all think
was the cat asking to be let out
for just a moment.
It’s the dissolution of an
impromptu barbeque evening
for three people who
became unexpected liferafts
for one another,
who never really knew
each other before this.
It’s a bountiful gratitude
no one expected.
The record ends,
the fan whirrs
it’s been a hollow day
but I still feel full.
Bio
Sarah Jean Valiquette is a queer actor, internationally published poet and photographer, and the creator and curator of (re)markable project. She has studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Banff Centre for the Arts and has a BFA in theatre from the University of Victoria. Her work has been published in Oratorealis Magazine, Queer Dot, Wellington Street Review, and in her first collection of poetry, "Little Rebellions," which came out in the spring of last year. You can find her online at www.sarahjeanvaliquette.com