Heather Ferguson
Heather Ferguson is the author of The Lapidary (which includes a full French translation, Vermillon 2009). Her poems have been anthologized in Symbiosis and Sounds New. Her writing has appeared in Alter Vox, Anthos, Arc, and Ygdrasil. The Lapidary, in Spanish translation, was part of the Projecto Adrienne, a collaboration between the national libraries of Chile and Canada, which gathered works by expatriate Chilean writers living in Canada.
Visiting my mother (haiku series) I kneel to help my father with his shoes he boards the bus unsteadily we sit at the front he leans sideways to look discreetly at a toddler my bag splits treats for my mother roll across the bus strong gusts buffet us on the short walk to the home flowers and chairs a welcoming patio mask the locked door how time jumps around my mother says amused a senior grabs me lovingly - oh mother, I've missed you so much! my mother gives the paring knife an odd look she wears her new ring with the fake diamond turned in by the fence my parents talk alone in the yard picnic supper we watch the ants and say little a senior sits slumped in her wheelchair, her chin on her teddy bear there on the toilet a resident, absorbed and in plain view he raped her right there to force her to talk my mother says June heat she speaks of her part - Mary - in a Christmas play my father listens intently ignores his coffee summer afternoon my mother prepares for bed back home, my father absent-mindedly pours himself a glass of vinegar |