Crystal Valerie Rea
January 6th, 2021
I said I am hungry
not Hunger Games.
$800 fine for gatherings more than 10.
Quebec institutes curfew;
this Saturday, 8pm.
Another curfew
at six, this day.
Not very Presidential news
Democracy gives way
PCR test required
72 hours before flight.
What is denied cannot be denied.
Outed,
in plain sight;
the visibility switched
lives ago.
I wonder, being White
and knowing
if the skin of the failed coup had been other
they’d have been beaten
gassed
shot
I wonder, our right as Canadians to comment on place that is not-
Home
and yet we neighbour.
What is the role of neighbour?
How do we do the work
local
and Global?
There is a reckoning to come beyond acknowledgement.
A pandemic to quell
lovers to meld bones with.
There is a reckoning to come beyond acknowledgement.
A reckoning upon whose breath
we’ll speak the names
of the heaven sent.
—Submitted on
Crystal Valerie Rea is dedicated to democracy and art, and the places they intersect. Transitioning from Canadian Actors’ Equity Association stage manager to workshop facilitator while the stages of our world are dark, she holds a BFA in theatre (technical production) from Ryerson University in Toronto, and a focus in art direction from Vancouver Film School. This is her first poetry publication.
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