From Twitch Force. Published by House of Anansi in 2019. Michael Redhill is the author of five collections of poetry and seven novels. His work has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize (Consolation) and won the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Bellevue Square). He lives in Toronto.

Made acceptance speeches, repelled
the Nazi scourge, had sex with lesbians,
convinced parents to keep the dog (age six),
visualized the tomatoes ripening, saw her
for the first time again, present at Dieppe,
shouted
plea
bargained, filibustered, sneered
at Kitty Hawk. Lay on my back and
was an oyster at Leucate Plage, signed
that kid’s cast, watched the car
hit someone else’s child in Berga,
opened the envelope, gave
the eulogy (whole room wept), remembered
the lost perogy recipe that called
for cottage cheese. Turned over again —
smear of the red-numbered clock —
designed book covers, tucked in under a left
and put down Chuck Liddell, caught
bullfrogs in the muck at the edge of Pine Lake,
brought back the smell of blueberry buns
from the Open Window Bakery, drove
the narrowing roads north. In my hand
I held the closed head of a milkweed pod
and peeled it back to white