By: Marie-Andree Auclair

My first mummy,
I stared at so long
my father wondered
where I was.
He did not see

I was with herin the glass cage
sitting compact
arms holding my knees
staring back.

What had they done to me
that I lingered undissolved
leather on stone
prisoner of time
not allowed to fade?

She found my dreams.
We ran on the sand of her river
wove baskets in the reeds
laughed, rarely disobeyed.
In the dark, I feared her
loneliness matched mine.

Marie-Andree Auclair’s poems have appeared in many print and online literary publications such as Apeiron, Gravel Magazine, Canthius Literary Journal, Harpur Palate, The Windsor Review, The Maynard, Qwerty, filling Station, Contemporary Verse 2, Structo UK, HCE (IRL). Her chapbook, Contrails, was released by In/Words Magazine and Press/Ottawa. She lives in Canada and is working on another chapbook.