keep the kids at home
I’ll do the walking today

quest the coronal landscape
where we used to walk and where those walks led

for what’s there that ages
but never seems to leave

Everlasting Gobstoppers telephone booths
the fundamental cling of narrative

which I’ve been assured is illusory
and should be chalked up to experiments with a new pen

but anything can be an ingredient
if you stir it in long enough

mealy-mouthed day-campers troubling the Metro
sure as furniture in the dark

uncles-in-law spilling from the Haraiki Pub
turned insubstantial by the sudden lack of context

a breed of budgerigar prone to tumours
falling to the steps of the Madre Dei Cristiani

some misplaced version of God
pulling it all together with eyes closed

JEFF PARENT is a dad, comic book enthusiast, and some kind of poet. His poems have been published by The Fiddlehead, Words(on)Pages, Lemon Hound, and The /tƐmz/ Review, amongst others. Jeff is currently enrolled in a Creative Writing MA at Concordia University and lives in Sherbrooke, Québec.