Claire Farley

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Flag


After Charlottesville,
some friends got together
at the human rights monument
on a Tuesday
in the rain & I wanted
to be there

I meant to
be there


                                         Instead I rowed
                                         to the middle of the lake

                                                              & drifted
                                          to the shore

                                         beyond the creek       
                                         box-spring      wires bent
                                         (curly hair pulled taut)

                                         Returning against the current         
                                         my back was a door

                                         &

                                         a cardinal above the lake
                                         red so like a flag

 

Claire Farley is a doctoral student at the University of Ottawa and co-editor of Canthius, a feminist literary journal. Her poetry has been published in Arc, ottawater, (parenthetical), and Bywords, among other places. She is the 2016 recipient of Arc’s Diana Brebner Prize.