Dean Steadman
Dean Steadman is an Ottawa poet and a graduate student in English literature at the University of Ottawa. His work has appeared in the Bywords Quarterly Journal, Table Leaves (Wordster's Press, 2007), and Descant, as well as on-line at the Banff Centre. His poems often use metaphor and discontinuous composition to express narrative in a manner intended to distinguish poetry from prose fiction.
mother's day morning a knit of daylight hours & dishes soaking the kitchen the only room where still a star burst or the garden corner when the first rays burrow & summer an unmistakable vole she thinks to plant the red azaleas a gift like memories of a time & drops a stitch unravelling the outstretched arms of a four-year-old storming the dandelions in the backyard a parachute drop of silken seed he collapses in laughter on her lap a mindful mosaic the skeins of wool among the jams & jellies she slips into a morning sleep hands folded in the reeds & rushes of her printed apron & dreams of geese in scarves sparrows in sweaters the missing handles of teacups d-day anniversary 2009 summer a purpose of land a fragrance you wear against your skin your mouth spring you dance the tall grasses by the lakeshore the band stand a weathered shell of peeling paint & fill your pockets with tickets & big band swing the beaches piling with corpses the light a fragment of torn sky written a promise of wetlands the sanctuary of shoreline for lorne & me pie-faced & distant signalling in semaphore: when offered resurrection remember you parked in a tow-away zone no remember drinks are at five no remember how you ejaculated with your first french kiss & remember her saying "what, you thought it was just something to piss out of?" remember god's an old horse trader so if you fall for the offer (& you will) ask to come back as the messiah or the engine that could or a hollywood gynaecologist she'll like that god likes a good joke |