National Poetry Month : Elee Kraljii Gardiner

circle 

a house, not a dwelling, a slightness. un-burrowed iffy protection. now
you: leaving. take leaving. walk all surround the house. in circle
the space. you, a key. you: hurt with oil and restored by use.

if you come across a bowl on the stone on the stump, reach across the bowl.
you be the body of water. you come to it. you come across
as if a wild creature. is this encounter like anything—

if it happens differently, is home different?
what if you come to a wall and the wall leans to a tree.
is that, was that, circle a house?

 

Elee Kraljii Gardiner [photo credit: Paul Joseph] is the author of the poetry books Trauma Head (Anvil Press, 2018), a chapbook of the same name (Otter Press, 2017), serpentine loop (Anvil Press, 2016), and the anthologies Against Death: 35 Essays on Living (Anvil Press, forthcoming) and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2012).  eleekg.com