i.
exuvia breaks at
the edge of 40
shell splits to reveal
a tender unfurling
iridescent wings
once dry in the sun
shimmer with shifting colours
and in flight
everything old
becomes
new again
ii.
my words used to fly like bees
floating on a summer wind
until they holed up and hid
just like the rogue colony that
built a hive in our porch roof
one July
in the heat the walls dripped with
sweet syrup
but my mouth stayed
sealed shut
sticky with silence
like I had honey
smeared across my lips
after I licked them clean
my thoughts took flight again
like the bees
after the keeper came
but it was me that reached in
pulled them free
hands dripping words
like fists full of
honeycomb
iii.
writhing and sinuous
she sheds
inhibition like a skin
the past slips free
as silk
slides to the floor
puddles at her feet
reborn
she rises up from the
basket of her bed
sways under her own spell
moves to her own music
marks this moment as
an arrival
an arousal
an awakening.
Allana Stuart was once an award-winning CBC Radio journalist, and is now a wrangler of children and a writer of poetry and fiction. She is also the producer of the podcast Rx Advocacy. A child of the boreal forest, Allana was born and raised in northwestern Ontario, spent several years in Northern BC, and currently calls Ottawa home. Lately, she spends most of her free time roller-skating in her basement. She can be found on Instagram and (sporadically) on Twitter.
