“Things We Might Have Done” by Debbie Okun Hill

Wentworth Corn Field, Steve Greaves

If we had more breath, more time

we might have taken art lessons

explored the Cadmium Yellows

in a vase of freshly cut daffodils

slid our feet in Prussian Blue seas

a sip of wave, so comforting

before your wild wheezing

windpipe storm arrived

Dying Rose, Sarah Kirk

We might have dipped our fingers

in Raw Umber, licked the Titanium

Whites in your cumulus cloud sky

but today your easel frame collapses

your skin, dehydrated

tissue thin like parchment

your mind clogged with squeezed oils

mixed media memories

the weight of paralysis

Can you still hear that murmur?

Your fading heart beat

erasing years of

creativity with each stroke--

today you no longer hold a brush

dab the pale paint that colors your

hospital canvas existence

your sheets twisted in frustration

Between each pause, each breath

your family spoon-feeding

nurturing your artistic palate

you whisper your last words

like pencil sketches, grey smeared

a half-breath we strain to absorb

lean close, closer to your lips

your loss of drawn-out conversations

and as you shrink inward,

drop Earth’s palette

are you still thinking

of kaleidoscopes

cut-up colors of life

collages of familial activities

we did and might have done together?

“Things We Might Have Done” was first published on the League of Canadian Poets National Poetry Month Blog 2011 and recently reprinted with the work of four other Canadian poets in the anthology EnCompass 1, a special project for members of The Ontario Poetry Society. For information about upcoming Ontario Poetry Society contests and events see here.

Debbie Okun Hill is the current President of The Ontario Poetry Society. To date, over 235 of her poems have been published in over 105 different publications/websites including Descant, Existere, Vallum, The Windsor Review, and Other Voices in Canada plus Mobius, The Binnacle, THEMA and Still Point Arts Quarterly in the United States. She has published two chapbooks with Beret Days Press. Her first full collection is expected to be launched by Black Moss Press later this year.

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