V.N. Doran
Shovel
late and water higher than it was
fog thick as cobweb stars skittering
spiders running from the moon
silence except shovel sucking ground
tonguing deep and spitting
who belongs to these?
some angel left her wings down here
never knew how to keep flowers alive
old cartilage cocooning under ribs a child
blooming and undone
shovel hits stone
shovel hits end of the world
ruptures a nameless womb force feeds
a million meandering deaths
somehow the axis knows to shift tip filth
back in over loneliness
V.N. Doran graduated from her MA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Toronto in 2017. She is the winner of the Maureen Morgan English Award and the Avie Bennett emerging writers award. She has published several poems in The Northern Appeal and has two pieces published in the anthology Lake Effect 6. She is currently completing Ryerson’s Publishing and Editing program and is working on her first novel.