IAN LETOURNEAU AT THE ATTIC OWL AT THE POETRY PARTY

Ian LeTourneau

CORE SAMPLE

A cylindrical record of four decades, 

cut through the permafrost of short-term 

memory, and ending at the bedrock 

of birth. And in between: a mountain range 

of wood chips puréed into the pulp 

of decaying industry, the punk and grunge 

of birdsong filling the backyard forest 

with non-sequiturs, highlight reels 

of hockey games, batting averages and ERAs 

committed to memory, pull quotes 

from conversations, slivers of books — 

the unpurged images of Byzantium:

sitcom dialogue, gold-leafed placards 

from real protests and internal protests

of the mind, managed with a triage

of sacrifices, but caught in a feedback 

loop, the tide worrying the sandy strand, 

swandiving further up shore. Half

a lifetime sampled into a column 

of text, a study sheet of the soul.

Ian's reading at the Attic Owl reading series in Moncton, NB, Thursday March 19 2020, with Bren Simmers and Sherry Coffey, was cancelled. His chapbook is available from Frog Hollow Press.