Third prize winner of the 1st Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest.

My hus­band loves Mrs. D. 

(They grew friendly and com­mu­nica­tive. They were infi­nitely delighted. They screamed. How intently—black head bent down, dark eyes fixed, strange, uncouth excla­ma­tions of sur­prise from her lips. She begged hard. He would give more by-and-by.)

I felt sorry that I was unable to grat­ify his wishes; 

My husband, a moving snake. I never conceived. 

His hands, 

his knees, 

his legs,

his face, 

the upper part of his person, the lower; it fitted exactly.

I demand an explanation. 

I pray.

I exclaim. 

(For several days they continued.)

Vexed and annoyed by the delight they manifest, I refuse to gratify him again.

Erasure poetry is created by starting with an existing text and erasing bits in such a way that the words left in place take on new shapes and meanings. For the 1st Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest, we posted an excerpt from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie, a memoir written in 1852.

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