by Margot Block

there is a knowledge that sails to a dry continent
perched on your memory of a Viking mast
your red hair and your curves
in deep conversation
we say it comes to you blind
played like the waiting game
words that surface again and again
while you criticize me in my own mirror
while I point to a contrived beauty
the red of your lip
the blue of your dawn
like a breaking adjustment
the memory of your mother’s folded hands
images short and sharp
as I was sent to you from somewhere else
a mouthful of wordy improvisations
challenged by legend and myth
where I tell you of the places
unfathomable and brilliant
golden lands and possibility
we have forgotten the damp accidents
smelling of bad poetry and wine
staining the tongue
for further presentation
holding the faithful to journey
as we end
justice her scales
are considering this tale

Margot Block has been writing since the age of fourteen and has been published in Zygote Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, Juice, the Collective Consciousness, Voices, Grub Street Literary Magazine, Bakwa Magazine and in the online journals BlazeVox, Kaleidoscope Online and the Bombay Review. She participated in the high school mentorship program with the Manitoba Writers Guild, working with Canadian poet, Carol Rose. She won first prize in a poetry contest sponsored by the Writers Collective and an honorable mention in a poetry contest sponsored by the Lake Winnipeg Writers Group.