Tour of the Universe
CN Tower, 1985
it’s a
soft sneakered
stroll through
the city at
night
mom’s
pleated khakis
the floral waft from her wrists
a hand around mine
she bought us
tickets
to
a star show
in a place there’s
no stars
and
still
her
face turns
to
sky
my
eyes to her face
retinas of streetlight
fold
to
periphery
and
this
now is
already the gone
is starshine
so
when
she
asks if I’ll
remember all I’ve
learned if I’ll
stay
awake on the drive
home
If
I’ll
love her
forever I mean it
it when I promise
somehow
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Hollay Ghadery is an Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, is due out with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children’s book, Being with the Birds, with Guernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Regional Chair of the League of Canadian Poets and a co-chair of the League’s BIPOC committee, as well as the the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. Learn more about Hollay at www.hollayghadery.com.