Those cuddly baby rats fit perfectly in my children’s palms. The patience, care, and attention they lavished on them over time changed how I felt. Love like that is contagious. After a while rats didn’t seem so bad. One day I told a neighbour in my housing co-operative that we had rats. A blend of horror and I’m sorry spun through her eyes and landed on her face. It took me a minute to realize that I had forgotten to qualify the rats as pets. I’d seen that look before. It’s the look I get when I admit to being a poet …
Bio:
Daniela Elza’s latest poetry collections are the broken boat (2020) and slow erosions (2020). Most recently her poetry placed second in the 2022 Ken Belford Poetry Prize for Social Justice, won first place in the 2023 Muriel’s Journey Poetry Prize, and was longlisted for the 2023 Vera Manuel Award for Poetry. When she is not writing she works as a poetry editor, mentor, and creative writing instructor.