taste of sweet coffee breathing
contemplating the void
wavelengths
reasoning with absence
and staring down the gaze
of a poem inside
music stretching longer
and traffic choking the streets
an unhappy lady takes her pill
an unsatisfied gentleman hands over his pullover
to illusions proliferating
in search of a fixed anchor of truth
between calving and franking
No cars go where we know
Arcade Fire notifies us
Between the click of the light
and the start of a dream
at the edge of a city of words
the outskirts of wit
flaring up at reasons
that reason never knows
scorched senses
like paint
under a burning torch
under no one’s eyes
library walls bleeding
taste of coffee still on these lips
reaching to touch yours
you are beside me like these walls
to tell the story of how the wound came to be
and there is no word to describe it
scar tissue of time released into the breeze
Marc Arseneau
Originally from Moncton, New Brunswick, Marc Arseneau was born on April 6, 1971. From 1991 to 2002, he was, among other things, the editor of Éloizes, an Acadian literary mag, and instigator of several poetry events, including Nuit des Seth (1991), Tableaux de backyard (1993), and Fièvre de nos mains (1998). In poetry, he is the author of À l’antenne des oracles (1992), L’Éveil de Lodela (1998), Avec l’idée de l’écho (2002) and Turbo goéland (2018), all published by Perce-Neige. Marc Arseneau has also published work in the literary magazines and journals such as Callicriture, Éloizes, Marache, Feux-châlins, Vallium, Satellite, Ancrages, Gaz Moutarde, Le Sabord, Estuaire and Rivière. Under his avatar, Turbo goéland, he published often on AcadieUrbaine.net. In music, he has worked with Les Oranges bleues and Les Païens. He has also taken part in performance poetry events and readings in Canada, France, and the U.S. Marc Arseneau is a teacher and lives in Louisbourg, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.