By Lindsay Lanigan
Lids click, flip open
Exposing clouded glass, cerulean, vacantly staring
As sooty tears seep through lashes, sodden,
Rivulets run tracks, sluicing down cherubic cheeks, blackened.
Girlhood bedroom ablaze;
Evocations billow, a blistering black haze
Of the past, charred ash brought back;
Spiraling with a burning vengeance.
Unleashed, noxious smoke chokes,
Rolling feverishly from the macabre source:
The pyre of pelts; beloved stuffies melt,
Synthetic fur smolders
Sending showers of furious sparks;
Spilling, igniting the dark, skittering onto the carpet,
Feasting on fibres, the fire swells;
Heat steams pastel pink papered walls,
Bubbles mushroom, pulsate; corners scorch, curl
Unfurl foul memories, sealed away
Left festering for decades;
Fusillade of fireworks leap leap leap to the twin bed,
Singe the hem of the flowered spread;
Flames tickle licking, wildly flickering,
Tease and taste; she lays, arms splayed;
In flannel nightgown, trimmed with lace;
Paralyzed, she prays:
I want to go home. I want to go home.
This is home.
Not this home.
I want to go home. Far away from this place.
Same, baby girl, same.
About the Poet
Lindsay Lanigan My name is Lindsay Lanigan, and I have been fortunate to call Abbotsford, British Columbia my home for the past 10 years. Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, I attended McMaster University and earned a degree in English and Sociology. Shortly after graduation I headed to Fukuoka, Japan and spent one year teaching English at a private academy. From there, I took a position in Cuenca, Ecuador where I taught ESL again for one year before heading back to my hometown.
In 2008, I moved to British Columbia with my husband and our beagle. I started my own business and have been tutoring refugees, immigrants, and international students in reading and writing for the past decade. Our family has grown with the adoption of a coonhound, and my husband and I have fallen in love with the beautiful Fraser Valley.
I am an avid reader and have been writing on an off purely for my own enjoyment for years, but recently I decided to try my hand at poetry. In July, 2019, I created an Instagram account @l.a.laniganpoetry where I post poems that I write. My poems are a collection of my personal thoughts, feelings, and observations inspired by nature, social issues, memories, relationships etc. I write what I feel, and I enjoy the challenge of the creative process. I hope to continue writing and sharing my work into the future.
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