This poem was recently published online in "Here and Now"
Becoming Virginia Woolf
Everything wavers, iridescent glass moils above me as a chilled gush-gust continually flaps me along the riverbed.
I sway like seaweed.
Carp, Pike, and Barbel regard me with interested eyes while awaiting dinner.
My fingers glide across anchors of stone that pack each pocket, stroke the smooth surfaces which weigh me down with unquestionable intent.
I watch trapped oxygen escape from each waterlogged nostril - air balloons rise towards the heavens. They tick time like a doomsday clock constantly counts down seconds.
Soon the mouth dam will fail - aquatic air will flood in and fish will clench and gnaw with cannibal jaws while they eat me as their own.
Using Calgary as a backdrop the author satirizes the self-serving nature of the public as it continues to fatten itself, not only physically, but egotistically as well.