Gary Barwin

Wings

Oh yeah, executer shrikes
a northern Dutch fold
I won’t say silver lips in multiple colours
but
I learned a lot, and
like grey tinder
the terriblest part is the tri-coloured glans
soaking up the tan
the thrill of thwack

I miss blackback extra,
little shine sister
muscle tip, blue outs

I know every word to every flu like
a Japanese seagull
so I’m never leaving here

beak-headed green lad
in front of the brown brisket posing beside
a night goal

this is flexible snout mice,
a diamond dove
crossbow
nothing positive can
come out of here except
stinging stars

never been around this
elegant parking lot or
violin warriors in my life.
never picked up winged bells before

I’m down for a saffron sink
a boom smart
a purple-glance spree
one, four, one, one

I’m splendid
fifty-three alpha minus
the way I found the spirit’s spanner was
I had Ted’s chest
a Napoleonic shrine
a head cold of trees

About the Author

Gary Barwin is the author of 26 books, including Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy, which won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, and Bird Arsonist (with Tom Prime). His national bestselling novel Yiddish for Pirates won the Leacock Medal for Humour and the Canadian Jewish Literary Award, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and was long listed for Canada Reads. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.