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Pleistocene Love
I am lonely as the walrus who floated
to the coast of Ireland, equipped for
cold but not for the jockeying
elbows of gawkers, a pinniped
gone viral, fin flapped over her eyes,
Weltschmerz sharp as Garbo’s.
A rosmarus by any other name
would be as tusked. Stay me with
blubber, comfort me with clams,
for I am thick of tongue.
Tanis MacDonald is a poet, nonfiction writer, and professor. Her most recent book, Mobile (Book*hug 2019), was longlisted for the 2020 Toronto Book Award. Recent poems and essays have appeared in The Malahat Review, Prairie Fire, and Understorey. She lives in southwestern Ontario in Canada
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