when time was large
you crawled
small between an older sister
and a brother
in the backseat of the family
your father drove
drunk while your mother
argued directions from a map
that crashed the car in a field
closed far from any road
so you learned to walk
out of the fog of morning
into the sunfall of day
and thought you’d left the wreck behind
but in a small hour of afternoon
you see from the haze
thickening gray to the east
that car coming
sudden as an accident
silver with its headlights off
it strikes you
in the middle of a lost moment of evening
and drives down the boulevard of your bones
where the blood swims around it
envelopes it
and you can only wait
for it to come again
racing out of a curve in the dark
into the blind intersection you stagger into
because you haven’t learned to drive
About the AuthorJake de Peuter has lived in Southern Alberta all his life, the source of his writing being experiences he's had in that region. He is currently working (along with the help of a few friends, he says) toward the publication of a chap-book, the title of which will be The Carthartic Converter Maintainance Manual. It will be his first published collection. Jake de Peuter has appeared in such periodicals as Grain and Whetstone. Known locally as a performance poet, he's been profiled performing poetry from the Carthartic Converter collection on the C.I.S.A. news program, "Impact" (Ch. 2&7 T.V., Lethbridge). He has also been featured in Lethbridge Living Magazine.
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