All I ever wanted was that living room, Sunday evening, chicken
In the roaster, that deep orange sofa, that maple table
Spread out like a wagon wheel upon which cups of tea floated
And macramé or puzzles could be assembled. Don't tell me
...
Sina Queyras (born 1963) is a Canadian poet. Her third collection of poetry, Lemon Hound, received the Pat Lowther Award and a Lambda Literary Award. In 2005 she edited Open Field: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets for Persea Books, the first anthology of Canadian poetry to be published by a U.S. press. She later edited Canadian Strange, a folio of contemporary Canadian writing for Drunken Boat, where she is a contributing editor. From 2005 to 2007 Queyras co-curated the belladonna* reading series in New York. Her most recent poetic work, Expressway, was written mainly in Calgary, while she was serving as Markin-Flanagan Writer-in-Residence at the University of Calgary. She published her first novel, Autobiography of Childhood, in 2011. The book was a shortlisted finalist for the amazon.ca First Novel Award. Her work has been published widely in journals and anthologies including Joyland: A hub for short fiction. She teaches creative writing at Concordia University in Montreal, and has taught at Haverford College and Rutgers University.)
Put Down That TV Tray
All I ever wanted was that living room, Sunday evening, chicken
In the roaster, that deep orange sofa, that maple table
Spread out like a wagon wheel upon which cups of tea floated
And macramé or puzzles could be assembled. Don't tell me
Disney isn't reality: whole cities have ticked by in nylon print
T-shirts, under lithographs of the Blue Boy in plastic K-Mart frames.
Poets, don't let your poems grow up to be idealists. I want in.
I agree we need to rethink everything from landfills to the accumulation
Of fat around the heart, but there really is nothing like a castle
Under a neon moon ringed with LED flowers. Also, dogs do
Find their way home, and while beds can't fly you can wake
From a good trip around the Internet and be hungry for a Pop-Tart.
Don't say you can't, or won't, or that my dream is flimsy: there is nothing
Less thrilling than a critique of others, how they do or do not, twirl.