Living Room

Another dull surd of
thermostat reminds you
that this room will be
inhumanly calibrated
under any crescendo
of attention (the arc
feathering, the branches,
bark deepening, as you
look). A neutral light
always there when you
want it. Unassailable,
settled, demanding,
yet barely legible, it
will remain
so long as you,
precarious, don’t
overtangle, lose
the thread, or
otherwise default. As
if a markless ground, it is
the damping base
from which you forever
find yourself starting out.  


Mark Truscott‘s third book, Branches, recently won the inaugural Nelson Ball Prize. More: marktruscott.ca