One might think an hour’s drive toward editorial work
would prove as easy as breath taken and expelled, but no—
even called “milk run” to summon visions of dailiness,
of zip out/zip in ease, any trip along Killer Highway 6
rumbles, latent with catastrophe.Yet to arrive at site,
Andris and Kate’s cozy old place, I screwed up courage
to face all manner of man-made or God-given opposition:
road-blocks for drunk-driver inspection
whiteout blizzards in full snowy blow
houses on trailers moved inch by inch
fog obscurity, thick pea-soup dense.
One might envision that arrival at her destination
would result in near-collapse by driver (me), but no—
energy surges back into someone who maneuvered
past Scylla and Charybdis when my greeters grin,
wave me in through warm, fragrant rooms, usher me
onto pillow-y seating, welcome me fully with sips
of rich, aromatic refreshment along with rare news:
brilliant submissions weighing down desks
events that beckon with invitations to dance
manuscript: Armin Wiebe’s latest wry oeuvre
to which I will sit, from which seek perfection.
Carolyn Creed received her PhD. in English Literature from University of Manitoba in 1998, after having taught post-secondary English full-time since 1980. Dr. Creed is Associate Professor of English at University College of the North. Her poetry has recently appeared in sub-Terrain, The Windsor Review, and the Global Poetry Anthology (Vehicule Press); both poetry and prose are featured in Poet to Poet (Guernica Editions), released in November, 2012. Her review of Rose’s poetry collection Marry and Burn appears in the Fall 2016 issue of The Goose (York U). The montrealpoetryprize.com website carries an MP3 of the author reading “Morel-Floored Forest”.