by Jayne Marek
Ephemera
Why are we drawn to the ones
who are thrown off course?
Vagrant, vagabond, wayfarer, wanderer.
A purple sandpiper at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
a hooded warbler in Fish Creek Park
the pelican with a broken wing
who overwintered for two years
at Frank Lake, feeding on invasive carp
before she flew away, one January day
in search of seasons
as she remembered them.
Do we see ourselves in the ones
blown across a continent?
Ephemera, rarity, accident.
Or left behind
in the echo of absent wings.
Angela Waldie teaches at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta. She recently finished her first poetry collection, entitled A Single Syllable of Wild, which is currently seeking a home. She has published poetry in The Antigonish Review, Event, Freefall, Grain, The Goose, The New Forum, Paperbark Literary Magazine, Prairie Fire, and various anthologies.
Jayne Marek’s writings and photos appear in Rattle, Terrain, The New York Times, Spillway, Bloodroot, Calyx, Catamaran, One, Gulf Stream, and elsewhere. She has provided cover art for Typehouse, Chestnut Review, Silk Road, Bombay Gin, Amsterdam Quarterly’s 2018 Yearbook, and The Bend, as well as for four full-length poetry books. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she writes, photographs, and learns about natural history. https://www.pw.org/content/jayne_marek.