National Poetry Month 2014: Anita Dolman,

The Contender

Snow falls in the capital,

all these things that dust does.

You could be right, not shelved,

less ambiguous in your polymorphism,

an actual result, like whiskey,

something at the bottom

or further.

When I write about you, I cry,

pen tumbles, unbalanced,

I start over, or want to.

It’s just the minutius of frozen water,

crystal of skin or sand,

little gatherings of intent.

You could have been someone,

but if you were,

I probably wouldn’t have noticed.

Anita Dolman’s poetry and flash fiction have appeared in journals and magazines throughout Canada and the United States, including, most recently, in Grain, Bywords.ca, The Antigonish Review, Ottawater and The Peter F. Yacht Club. Her poetry appeared in the 2006 Chaudiere Books anthology Decalogue: ten Ottawa poets. Her short story “Happy Enough” is available as an e-book (Morning Rain Publishing, Burlington, 2014). You can follow her on Twitter @ajdolman.