VICTORY
my first heart attack occurs when
I, a 12-year Jewish girl with pants big
as the occupied territories
sew a parachute for a Gulf War vet
out of appropriated pemmican but leave holes ignored by the UN
and the guy has to rely on CanLit tropes all the way down.
My second heart attack occurs when we steal roses
from the Gillers and I drive a getaway car into unceded
Old Colony Road and flip four houses. Harm occurs to many POC
(where? your choice) because I say so in this award-winning poem.
In a 7-11, I buy a Slurpee from a kidnapped monkey and in the basement
make my face red with grief. I’m not kidding. My lover sculpts
replica Civil War bullets to use as dental records.
My third heart attack occurs when a Scout leader
metaphorically knots woggles with his perfect mind and
high above the city, a cancer-surviving trapeze artist goes down on himself
in mid-air and catches fire. My fourth heart attack occurs
when my Survival includes surviving me. It’s the last one because
I rip my heart out, stick it on a gold platter
like the noggin of John the Baptist and win.
__________
over on Twitter, Alicia Elliott posted some prompts from an old creative writing class given by Joseph Boyden at the Banff Centre for the Arts. I tried to use as many of them as I could in this poem.
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