2nd Prize winner of the 2017 Occasional Geist Erasure Contest, announced in Geist 108. Erasure poetry begins with an existing piece of text. Letters, words and punctuation are removed—or erased. What is left behind is a new stand-alone poem, one that both complements and gives new meaning to the Erasure Text. The Erasure Text for the 2017 Geist Erasure Poetry Contest is an excerpt from Wacousta by John Richardson, one of the oldest Canadian novels.

UNDERCOVER REPORT ON THE FIXER AT PHARMALOOT

Sir—

He, from report alone

was not slow

and with characteristics

which led him to qualify

secretly.

According to him

the original fails,

instead, throw over

in secret

direct and subsequent blame.

The main impressions

chart as passion,

capacity’s force

tinged by choices

in secret.

He tows in wealth, nine-

teen times out of twenty

a mass of material

substantial indeed