Monday, December 4, 2023

Elee Kraljii Gardiner : Memory (for Nikki Reimer

from Report from the Reimer Society, Vol. 1 No. 1

 

 

 

We are both in love
          with tractors, the farmlife at the end of our arms
                    just out of reach of everything
but nostalgia We are romantic
          for past utility, brightly-eyed as a blue Ford
                    it’s gear shift slender as a sapling

We get sad talking about tractors        
          Stretching through silver keys
                    towards communion         we furrow
                              brows, grow a little teary remembering
how many things
          we have never touched
                    I offer you ribs of the radiator, at least what I have heard of it
                              and you spin the spiney axel my way

When you begin with a begot, you continue the unforgotten

i’m the son of the son of a tractor;
your lonely fist brings back memories of that time in southern Alberta
dad pointing to where the granary stood,
where the house was—
former foundations now an indentation in an empty field.
over a fence the cattle herd watched me placidly.
they could tell i didn’t know the first thing about agriculture.
my other grandfather was a traveling salesman:
little ribs ease up on the clutch.

 

 

 

 

Elee Kraljii Gardiner is an author, editor, and creative mentor whose award-winning books of poetry include Trauma Head and serpentine loop, and the anthologies Against Death: 35 Essays on Living and V6A: Writing from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and three chapbooks: Residence, WATCHER with Gary Barwin, and Trauma Head: the medical file. A frequent collaborator with choreographers, musicians, and visual artists, Elee is currently collaborating with nature via a series of durational installations that investigate the law of thermodynamics and cultural ideas regarding the passing of time. Originally from Boston, Elee lives in Canada where she directs Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, a program pairing authors with mentors. eleekg.com