wing words
by Daphne Marlatt
Note: These poems are from a series called “flights” written
about not only my childhood in Penang (& the feeling of
being both here in Vancouver, & there) but also my dad’s
early years there in the 30s based on letters he wrote home to
his mother in England.
No more now; writing is rather difficult to–night as we have a
visitation of many small insects of various shapes & sizes. They
keep falling down from the lamp overhead & my pen has to
thread its way between their corpses.
Penang, December 20th 1935
amber smudge wing smears
on yellowing letter stock signed
from Arthur blue ink blue
ink–thin line drawn
under
small wing blurs
amber hair–like, yours
on the back of your hand
under bachelors’ mess lamp
pen nib skirting
burned wings to wing
words cross–ocean
wealth uncountable
unpriced moth throe, firefly
blur
temple flowers, white, fragrant
through window unglassed
your light
attract
death to paper via
Indian Ocean, Suez, Medi–
terranean, mother Angleterre
this wing wealth then
a line drawn
No more