Sandra Ridley's sediment

writing topics from wheat farms, the long furrows leave, recede light 

in smoke. the sun is large, & throws the province

single shadows; saskatchewan,



she says, where a finger draws a lake, a single file



in poems that move a glacial pace, scraping earth & leaving there

the best of everything, as hard



to remove from the ground as from

her calloused hands, her dancers frame; what poem

doesnt last



or last forever, lake water over shield into descent 

; graceful, pouring deep & water in



a renovated kitchen

& westboro rooms. wind makes wheat a crack dry in



a door become a heart-shape, what silt



moisture as weightless, stain more than air



or wind through the wheat or like wheat, breakable to never-bend

; this is the story, she writes, the poem



of what was left behind

© rob mclennan