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From the archives

That Ever Governed Frenzy

Through the eyes of Jody Wilson-Raybould and Michael Wernick

Rumble on Parliament Hill

In the ring with Justin Trudeau

Return of the Robber Barons

Chrystia Freeland asks if we can tell “makers” from “takers” among the new super-rich

 

the “wee tea”

a child’s sampler

urge the fractious toddler to

“just have a taste”

nursery food on a plate

rectangle triangle circle

cubed, it’s a geometry lesson

 

dowager eats a cucumber sandwich sixth

half-circle and square in the gullet

mini-scone with chicken and apple

dissect, bite, wait

bite bite bite

each barely enough to taste

she argues the garnish into an entree

a piece of apple!

a sprig of parsley!

lopsided heart/cross section/

a strawberry!

 

left: the lemon loaf

butter pecan slice

shortbread cookie

pinwheel of egg salad

loops round and round

to a pinprick mayonnaise centre

an object lesson

 

wishes her stomach could be

a doggy bag or box

take it home and store it

distribute the largesse

but to eat it?

no

 

“at home,” in her suite

she eats on saucers

conjures a dollop

into a serving

leaf-thin bites

doll-house implements and cutlery

 

no need for stool softeners

the smallest of consumables

a fraction of a fraction

 

whetstone in use

knives kept sharp to aid habit

a cut to appall

the remains so small

 

the very tip

off a point of cake

the remainder

still looks isosceles

 

if not a lesson in geometry

fractions or

declining decimals, then what?

 

Word Problem:

how little fat below

how little skin

sinew on cartilage

to bind bone to bone

Crystal Hurdle’s most recent book, Teacher’s Pets, a novel in verse for young adults, was published by Tightrope Books in 2014. She teaches English and creative writing at Capilano University in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and is a former fiction editor of The Capilano Review.

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