Two Poems by Chris Yurkoski

"The Riotous Living" and

The Riotous Living

i

I hacked the draft of a legacy
off once the lives of those saints
rubbed out of the foolscap.

Cribbed an inheritance 
between catchphrase and curse, 
colophone and crop marks. 

It hatched from the library dust,
coughed, sneezed, spat 
up a bit, and then ran – 

iia

But I telegraphed forgiveness,
having collapsed 
beneath that absence. 

Sought transfiguration
off rumours, addresses, dead
numbers, companions.

Maybe their information 
was just tangled up in 
the wires?

iib

I would pick at turned 
memory, like lewisia 
roots hammering

into the concrete.
I would tug at some
sepia angst.

Part bribe, part nostalgia,
pour it all out into
prodigal plotline. 

iii

Each revolution returns, 
if slow and angrily, like 
bull trout flapping 

upstream in twitches.
Inevitable gravity mixing 
with time for remembrance.

They open us up and sift, 
as ash, into the page 
where we’re scattered.

Butterfly Junction

wild sounds
above us
between us
around us
inseams us
below us, oh
so way 
down under-
ground us
clenched

burst our
awkward way
on, shucking
the lights, 
the lines, 
the walkways,
bloodtrails,
the rage still
left there 
idling all
after us

About the author: Chris Yurkoski has previously published a variety of prose and poetry. Most recently, poems have appeared in Euphony, Hidden Peak, The Prairie Journal of Canadian Literature, Bones, and Shot Glass Journal.