Donna needed bras;
Jesse socks; the kids
candy. So they said
yanking her sleeve,
their heads tilted, pleading
as they trooped
through the Monday mall.
The food court draped
with jean’d students,
spread across tables,
sleeping on the floor.
Lines of dominoes lead
up a ramp to a rocket ship;
multiple lanes ran to spinning wheels
and a Chinese tomb of soldiers.
A sign said they were building
a computer. Donna wondered
what dominoes could answer
when Rachel pulled her finger,
“Why are some missing?”
“Jesus tiles,” an old man said,
a poppy tray in his arm. “They save
the whole thing from going off.”
Just then a clinking hail of glass
ran across the floor to end
before the rocket.
Rachel’s face lit up, “I’d like to see that.”
“You have no idea,” he said,
placing a poppy in her outstretched hand.
Source: John B. Lee (comp.) Arborealis: A Canadian Poetry Anthology, 2018. Toronto: The Ontario Poetry Society, 2018.
Rally was a winner of the Judge’s Choice award of the Ontario Poetry Society contest. Inman’s poem Figure Eights won the first prize, his poem Rock Paper Scissors won the third prize, and his poem Crewed also won a Judge’s Choice award in the same contest.
Declared a ‘people’s poet’ by John B. Lee and Dr. Elspeth Cameron, for his blue collar style, Inman’s work has earned him a variety of grants and contest awards. A first chapbook, Hanging on a Nail, with two other Niagara Poets at Sigilate Press, sold over 500 copies. And a first Trade book, The War Poems: Screaming at Heaven from Black Moss Press, received a review from Canlit #223, who compared his work with Atwood and Itani. Keith lives and writes in Niagara.
A poem that invites one to think. Nice.