I think always of you waiting
Though why this should be I don’t know
The strange vague esteem of the living
Imagining the dead have nothing more to do
Than hunger after their time on earth —
The kisses, the rifts, those indifferences, those whims —
All the range that once was feeling’s surfeit
That, memoried in the light of death, seems
Holier, more desired — yes, that romantic dreck
While I know it’s only fantasy & hope
Still brings me closer to you — such fake
Scenarios, silly dreams really there to help me cope
With a lifetime of words that no longer can be said
Now these words of the living, talking to the dead.
Catherine Owen is the author of nine collections of poetry, the most recent being Trobairitz (Anvil Press, 2012) and the chapbook Steve Kulash & Other Autopsies (Angel House Press, 2012). Her collection of memoirs and essays, Catalysts: Confrontations with the Muse, was published by Wolsak and Wynn in 2012. Frenzy won the Alberta Book Prize. Owen edits, tutors, plays bass in Medea & the allgirl AC/DC tribute band Who Maid Who, and composes with the Lyrical Outlaws.