A journal of art + literature engaging with nature, culture, the environment & ecology

Civitas

Marie-Andree Auclair (Ontario, Canada)

 

I civilize

make good citizens 

out of seeds and plants

protect them in a garden plot

in rows and verses

under variegated skies.

 

Selection is my privilege

as gate-keeper and 

principal toiler.

I keep a wild corner 

for trap crops, another 

for pioneering the peculiar. 

 

I plant and push for a crop

or two, familiar and new, 

stake to posts the tomato plants 

nip sucker buds, thin carrots 

all for order and a future feast.

 

Yet the untamed too is hungry.

 

Marie-Andrée Auclair’s poems have found homes in many print and online publications in Canada, the USA and in several other countries; to name a few: Bywords, Canada; Acta Victoriana, Canada; The Helix, USA; High Window, UK and upcoming at Frogmore Papers, UK. She also enjoys photography, traveling and adding to her cooking repertoire after each trip.  She lives in Canada.

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