Poetry: Souvankham Thammavongsa

SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA

The Rusty Toque | Issue 3 | Poetry | October 12, 2012

LIGHTNING STORM SEEN FROM THE WINDOW OF AN AIRPLANE

Where once there swirled cottons of soft white and various hues of blue

Some bent metal wire charged and flickered inside an incandescent bulb

Some fly-fisher’s line pulled at by one who didn’t know how to fly cast

Some flame-thrower’s flame tossed over and over and over by itself

Some length of shining white ribbon wrapped around a ball came loose

Some strands of copper-coloured tinsel dangled from what wasn’t there

SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA won the 2004 ReLit prize for her first book of poetry, Small Arguments. Her new book will be released September 2013.

THE RUSTY TOQUE

Rusty Talk
Rusty Recommends
Archives

ABOUT

Masthead
Mission
News

CONTACT

Newsletter
Contact The Rusty Toque
Chapbooks

The Rusty Toque was supported by the Canada Council from 2015-2017

The Rusty Toque would like to acknowledge the sacred land on which we operate. It has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and Confederacy of the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory.