folio : Forty-five Ottawa poets
after Zheng Bo
come—
slide
our
tongues
into each other
on thumbs
on lips on fingertips
lingering & [vibrating] & watch
our pages fall open
u n f u r l i n g
into a sacred wisdom [breathe] & sense
& squeeze
& [breathe] our ecstasy
each
other
twined
topographies as varied
as the lives
that dot
this basin
[vibrating]
glistening
lush &
green
“botanical comrades” comes from my second collection of poetry, Through the Eyes of Another: a collection of ekphrasis. It is inspired by the oeuvre of Zheng Bo — an ecoqueer artist of ethnic Bai heritage whose ongoing video and performance series “Pteridophilia” explores the erotic possibilities between plants and queer men. The collection at large is informed by visual art’s capacity to make us see anew and engages with twenty-two selected artists (working across the mediums of photography to film, performance and installation) who have affected the trajectory of art history in an international context. Through the Eyes of Another: a collection of ekphrasis is forthcoming with Buckrider Books (Wolsak & Wynn) in Spring 2027.
Ellen Chang-Richardson [photo credit: Nicholai Gregory] is a Canadian poet, hybrid genre writer, editor and author of Blood Belies, shortlisted for the 2025 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. A third culture kid at heart, Ellen’s writing is informed by their love of contemporary art, their concern with human impact on the earth, geopolitics, memory and their experience moving through various societies as a femme-presenting genderqueer. Their writing can be found in publications including Augur, Grain, Plenitude, Room, Watch Your Head, Vallum Contemporary and I’ll Get Right On It: Poems on Working Life in the Climate Crisis (Fernwood Publishing, 2025). In addition to their writing, Ellen is a judicial assistant for the Federal Court and an editor for Paper Bill Press, long con magazine and Room. They also co-founded and co-curate the experimental Riverbed Reading Series in collaboration with nina jane drystek. Stay connected at www.ehjchang.com.