I can’t stop seeing her
heavy coat open
her four children huddled
behind a placard
numbly trudging
through a bad dream’s snow
following the pot-bellied man
led handcuffed away …
Poem, in its entirety, is available in the printed version of the current issue.
Bio:
Jean van Loon is an Ottawa writer and a graduate of Carleton University, Queen’s University, and the University of British Columbia. Her second poetry book, Nuclear Family, was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in April 2022. Her first, Building on River (Cormorant, 2018), was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. Her story “Stardust,” published in Queen’s Quarterly, was included in Journey Prize Stories 19.