strawberry juice and stew in downtown Tkaronto
and a teaching lodge scattered with
bright orange shirts like fiery flowers
in a wilting meadow. the roof
is fortified with enough love and loss
to fill an entire ocean —
and you are in the centre of it all.
your soft hand is clasped
in your kookoom’s sisters’
callouses and manicured nails
and the brightness of a thousand stars.
the teaching lodge is burning with tears
stuck in your throat. the lodge is burning with
missing years and words only elders know
your kookoom’s sweet voice on the phone
and the story of a woman on a boat
to Gaza. the lodge is ablaze—
and you are in the centre of it all.
Ani Teengs is a second-year English & Professional Writing student at York University. She loves writing poetry, prose, and the occasional non-fiction. Her favourite topics to explore in her writing are queerness, sports, her Indigenous culture, and friendship.