Heather OC: Week 5 of 208

Oh, Canada

Innocuous mass above our heads,

Giant kitten sleeping on my pillow

Protecting me from dread. My

Mother left New Brunswick at five;

But to hear her, you would think

She had lived there all her life.

An escape plan for Handmaids,

And me. Atwood’s Eden, and my

Great grandmother’s brownstone

On Germaine. White deer at Fundy Park

an allure, a promise. You are not our enemy

To the north, but half of me.

My heart pulled apart like a sinewed

Stone. Anatomized and clever.

More cleverer than us. I will walk

The streets, a new passport in my hand

And a green card melting

Under all this climate change.

Claws out, ready to pounce or a flag

With no shame embroidered on my back.