Living in the Wait
- Living in the Wait
We lay deep, expecting the worst to happen.
During the wait I planted a staghorn sumac,imagined its woolly branches, the way theyresembled velvet-covered deer antlers. I knewa black ink could be made from the bark,its autumn leaves once rolled and smoked, the fruiteaten raw or made into jelly. I blessed mysumac, begged it to give me somethingI didn't know I wanted. The soft woodbecame a limb-loosener, rubbing off my marledgenes in a downward shed. He said itwouldn't survive the winter, but I knew theinner bark was woven tight, rooted inmy warmth.
I wish I'd known then that I wassome spoiled infant green, fruitless from the start.We're too young, he says. We've becometerrified of each other. [End Page 64]
Ashley-Elizabeth Best is from Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. She was on the poetry shortlist for the 2011 Matrix Litpop Awards and Prism's Poetry Prize 2012. She has poetry appearing in the Red River Review, In/Words, The Maple Tree Literary Supplement, Prick of the Spindle, Fox Chase Review, CV2, and Branch Magazine. She recently placed first for poetry in This Magazine's Great Canadian Literary Hunt 2012 and was the poetry runner up for subTerrain Magazine's Lush Literary awards 2012. She has a chapbook published with Cactus Press called Slow States of Collapse. Currently she lives and writes in Kingston.
