this is how you lose me

bees are out

on the razzle:

pollen-drunk.

the triumph

of their butterfly

milkweed &

lavender habit.

grackles, in their

velveteen green,

tell tales over

how you erupt;

my mum would

have kittens

if she knew.

please soften

& not only when

you’re on a

come down.

this is how you

lose me. i won’t

eat for days, &

dream of folding

myself through

the tissuey air

of the humber

bay arch bridge.

Jessica Popeski is a dis/abled opera singer, Professor of English, Creative Writing, and Poetry, and internationally published, intersectional ecofeminist poet. Named one of Tkaronto’s “exceptional up and coming writers” by Open Book, she authored “Oratorio” and “The Wrong Place” with Anstruther Press. “the problem with having a body,” is forthcoming with Gordon Hill Press. She was raised in Moscow, Russia, and Sheffield, England, by her mother and grandmother.