From Twitch Force. Published by House of Anansi in 2019. Michael Redhill is the author of five collections of poetry and seven novels. His work has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize (Consolation) and won the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize (Bellevue Square). He lives in Toronto.
Made acceptance speeches, repelled the Nazi scourge, had sex with lesbians, convinced parents to keep the dog (age six), visualized the tomatoes ripening, saw her for the first time again, present at Dieppe, shouted help is coming, hold on! plea bargained, filibustered, sneered at Kitty Hawk. Lay on my back and was an oyster at Leucate Plage, signed that kid’s cast, watched the car hit someone else’s child in Berga, opened the envelope, gave the eulogy (whole room wept), remembered the lost perogy recipe that called for cottage cheese. Turned over again — smear of the red-numbered clock — designed book covers, tucked in under a left and put down Chuck Liddell, caught bullfrogs in the muck at the edge of Pine Lake, brought back the smell of blueberry buns from the Open Window Bakery, drove the narrowing roads north. In my hand I held the closed head of a milkweed pod and peeled it back to white