“Chatterer the red squirrel” by Elizabeth Barnes

Chatterer the red squirrel
with his meddlesome tongue
runs for his life
the rush the speed
blurred branches
looping treed skylines
forest floor tipping overhead
menace behind
he leaps he soars he reaches
and peppering the forest with his chatter
he falls
flattens his belly-body
for a splat landing
bones and muscles turned to jelly
and like jelly
he bounces

and flies
a streaking arrow released from a taut bow
fired thru underbrush
snaking round and round
tail to nose
an ascending trunk
his pursuer nibbling his heels
up-around up-around up-around
along ever-diminishing branches
shrinking narrower and narrower
weaker and weaker
till twig snaps:
he leaps he soars he’s gone
become a sailing flying squirrel...
free at last

Elizabeth Barnes has been writing prose and poetry for more than 20 years. She is published in Canadian Voices Vol I and II. in 2002 she was short-listed for the Writers' Union of Canada short story contest for her story “The Yellow Dahlia.” She is a member of the High Park Writers’ Group, the Ontario Poetry Society and regularly attends meetings of the Canadian Federation of Poets. As well as writing, she takes photographs, sews wall hangings and is trying to improve her skill on the piano.

Elizabeth will be one of the writers reading her work at CJ’s Café in Oakville on Tuesday, September 13 (6:30 – 9:00). Everyone’s invited! More here.

See Brian's full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Kingston, Peterborough, Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Georgetown, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Kitchener, Guelph, London, Woodstock, Orangeville, Barrie, Gravenhurst, Sudbury, Muskoka, Peel, Halton, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.