Letter to a Friend

The perfume of wet pavement rattles the air
enters the nostrils like a bee sting
sings of:
honeysuckle
wet dogs
ripping grass at the park

The trees limp,
under a heavy enamel of rain
the gum-tattooed cement glistens
in its own selenium-toned ooze
organic emulsion of man-made grief.

Oxygen in an urban rainforest travels
the veins like bricks, graffiti, and newspaper boxes

All this apocalypse to post a letter
which will arrive with your name
in large
bled
ink.

— SUSANA MOLINOLO

(Originally published Christmas, 2001.)

Author Bio

Susana Molinolo lives between Little India and the Beach. She is a mom, wife, writer, and editor. Her work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Now, and has been broadcast on CBC Radio. She is currently the editor of Triathlete magazine and a columnist for weewelcome.ca, and is writing/editing a parenting anthology about nursing in public. (Last updated summer, 2006.)