Wanda Waterman St. Louis

Click Here to Read More About This Title

What say quilted peacocks and keepsakes in a drawer?
What say paisley patch of dead Jane’s nighty
Stitches ripped, stitches stitched
Our patient’s black hair winding,
Stuck in pillow cream?

There is the calico ice-cream seller,
Here the tottering parasol lady
And white-faced Pierrot.
Yes, look!
The smiling infant
And a whole crew of cockatoo characters
Parades around her sordid bed.
No mothballs, no minty candy.
Oh, pretty marionette dance!

Cry out and make her tumble from her dream
You my bonbons, my happy ringing family
Puppies leap and yelp in her little green yard, ah,
But wait ’til the waking cock crows.

Wanda Waterman St. Louis is a Canadian freelance writer whose poetry has been published in The Talking Leaves, Descant, Pottersfield Portfolio, Tigertail and The Voice, Our Times, as well as on the CKUA Radio website. She won second prize for Drama in the 1998-1999 George Elliott Clarke Literary Competition for her stage play Wildflowers. She currently produces a comic strip called “Chronicles of Cruiscin Lan” for Athabasca University’s webzine The Voice (http://www.ausu.org/voice) and writes devotionals for Maranatha. As a volunteer Wanda has worn many hats: she has written publicity for several non-profit organisations, worked as an announcer, producer, and interviewer on campus radio (CKDU, Dalhousie), organized a wind ensemble, served as a deacon, and was instrumental in unionising a workplace, for which she produced a monthly newsletter, The Union Maid.

editorial / fiction & poetry / column / submissions / contact

home