Cole McInerney

Summer 2024 | Poetry

Port Colborne

You wore a mulberry-black chore coat

to witness a group gathering at the lock

to see the boat, as if it were a reenactment

of that week’s funeral   The lift bridge

goes up and seems to just stay there

 

Stepping into the legion further down

the canal with the veterans, drinking

the whole interior long enough

to be a pool, that way it felt

like more than just sitting around

 

There was hockey on every television

behind the bar, and I noticed

how the ice on the screen

kept the rest of the place

from going dark

 

On the commercial breaks

it felt like being in the centre

of the barn as the sky would

leave it behind    You were there

across from me in defeat

 

Was it the loss or the loss within loss

Either way it looked like grief

 

Was it dust or    stardust

Shining next to you on the seat

Cole McInerney is a poet from Niagara Falls, Ontario. Currently, he is an MFA student at the University of South Carolina. His poems have appeared in White Wall Review, The Bookends Review, Echolocation Magazine, and The Lakeshore Review.

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