With cognition as its mahout,
the mind, in its bone howdah,
wishes the body would call it
honourable sahib, but the body
has another name in mind not
befitting mixed company and
waits till its flyweight rider
has fallen asleep to pictures
of itself in emperor’s clothes
before body, in its own form…
Peter Richardson
Peter Richardson has published three collections of poetry with Véhicule Press: A Tinkers’ Picnic (1999), An ABC of Belly Work (2003) and Sympathy for the Couriers (2007), which won the Quebec Writers’ Federation 2008 A.M. Klein Award. His work has appeared in Descant, Poetry Magazine and The Malahat Review, among others. He lives in Gatineau.