poetry

Sang Froid
by Lesley Pasquin

La vengeance est un plat qui se sert froid.

Forgiveness is a woman's act; darning the marriage with blunt needles until the hole is not longer visible; the prodigal returned to the cold conjugal bed. Without forgiveness, anger will lie at the bottom of the lake. Muck. Murky sludge feeding the dark that percolates like yesterday's coffee grinds reused.

No going to war for this with fury; there are the children after all, the country house, dinner party invitations: Salome serving the head on a platter.

Lesley Pasquin is a Montreal writer, poet and teacher. She is currently an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Education at McGill University. She has written for educational journals and the Globe and Mail. Her poems have been published online at Montreal Serai. She has produced a chapbook entitled Alabaster in a Stone Wall. She has read at The National Library of Canada, The Yellow Door, Notre Dames de Montreal and is a frequent guest at Poetry Plus. Lesley explores myth and religion in her work, as well as the intimate details of women's lives.