Embers in Flight
Lightning struck
before rain.
The old man's dishcloth caught fire
on the clothesline
in the middle of the yard.
I watched it go up like a rapture
against the cedarwood fence,
the bluegrass lawn,
and the treeline that keeps me,
girl, from the dark green wild.
The crack of thunder
still heavy on my chest.
I am thinking
no one will believe me.
But I am soon joined
by grief and brotherly company:
boy cousins, drinking
to taste pain, feel night,
who went for a drive
to learn the violence of light
and found me in the yard
holding the ashes
of a lightning strike,
waiting still for rain.
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Cara Goodwin is a Cree and white
settler poet based in Ottawa whose work has appeared in Bywords, flo.,
Room, and other Canadian literary magazines. Over the past five years,
she has received two Honourable Mentions for the John Newlove Award and was
shortlisted for Room magazine's annual poetry contest in 2023. She
recently read as a featured performer for the Riverbed Reading Series, where
her poems traced her ancestral roots across what is now called Canada.
Her above/ground press debut, Map of What Was
Taken (2026), was launched at the above/ground press 33rd Anniversary
Reading and Book Launch on August 22 at Anina's Café. Copies can be ordered
online through above/ground press. Cara is a proud off-reserve member of Fort
McMurray 468 First Nation.