David Fraser

  

David Fraser lives in Nanoose Bay, on Vancouver Island. He is the founder and editor of Ascent Aspirations Magazine, since 1997. His poetry and short fiction have appeared in 28 journals including Three Candles, Regina Weese, Ardent, and Ygdrasil. He has recently published collections of his work: Going to the Well and The Dark Side of the Billboard. Currently David is the Federation of BC Writers Regional Director for The Islands Region.  

The following works are copyright © 2008. All rights reserved. No distribution or reprinting in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  

Remember

Remember when town
was not yet gobbled up,
small patches of treeless land
with waist-high grass,
wild flowers, a spring
blanket of golden orange butterflies
thumbnails of fluttered energy.

Remember when the river
ran winding clear without a smell,
bamboo fishing poles,
rafts built to float down
toward the dam,
wet skin sun feeling
of a careless afternoon.

Remember fog
rowing on a still black lake,
haunting whippoorwill and loon,
as white pine walked
toward the water,
oar splash, oar-lock squawk
eddies trailing
an immense density
always closing in,
fireflies along a
midnight cottage road,
cool air, glowing
vibrations of the stars,
late August moon
swimming heavy
in the lake.

  

Watching Sparrows

Tiny sparrows perch
grouped with preparation on
bent yellow branches
of winter bare willow
before their synchronized flight,
a ball of amoeba feathers
curling in ribbon ripple
mobius strips with
thickness, volume, depth
in their dark flight
through air.

This preparation closely watched,
kids on monkey bars,
Wallenda's prepping
swing, wrist snatch,
breath held in twirl
flight, they hop from
branch to branch
ever higher out of
tangled whip strands
of willow draped
until, all poised
waiting on a wire
cleared for take-off they
just do it.