- Adrian Slonaker
Frostback

Frostback
In the window next door
a crude turkey traced with
a seven-year-old hand
and cut from construction paper
must've had
chilled giblets since
the end-of-November breezes
were even nippier than normal,
making Thanksgiving even odder
for Henry, who's used to
Tofurky and pumpkin pie amid
a blazing luster of
leaves in October in Kitsilano
on the day when his new neighbo(u)rs
who say “shone” with the wrong vowel
and can't locate Lethbridge
debate the dubiousness
of a holiday for Christopher Columbus.
—Adrian Slonaker