Mackenzie Carignan
​

cleek

begin with hook, bent glance in afternoon shade, the heat
already living in the spine of structure. blade. one terrible
rush from the sharpest point. I can’t help but picture the
bend of your fingers, your clenched hand hooking my hair.
when you live inside the blur, the consistent and enclosed
space that feels so much like a footnote, it’s easy to slip
through your fingers. you missed me. there. fastened in but
living in the margin.
satori
​
what if we considered the blackbird more carefully, her
circular, barreling body, her yellow eye-ring and beak, her
territorial threat displays, her fledglings’ pink throats that
blend into the softest orange at their pointed beaks. but it’s
the male who sings loudly in the spring, calling in the evening
to secure his roost. I understand now how the puddles
formed.  snow  melt  and  frozen  saliva.  winter  and  the
horizontal salvation we worried and worried and worried
about. the icy field, the bird’s early song, our mouths open to
the dawn’s light.
danger, spring, sediment

i.
category: iron
that stained rock
red. moments
you are missing
are moments
I conjure you
shrouded in crimson
daylight plucking darkness
            away
only to return with
flecks of bronze
& fluorite
veins that crack open
when we shift
to another category

ii.
sister of my dreams
i thought you’d be here
where

you are a ghost
& field of Columbine
& a wolf who has waited
too long to hunt
​
iii.
nestled in
wild pomegranate mouth
deliver, deliver
we peel away
the burn
the paper
the scar
the word we won’t speak
in the darkness of coldsnap
--
Mackenzie Carignan is owner and founder of Creative Vision Lab, a creativity and writing coaching practice in Broomfield, CO. She has a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from University of Illinois at Chicago, and her collection, a house without a roof is open to the stars, is available from Black Radish Books, and her chapbook, someone somewhere is running is available from Dancing Girl Press. Her work has appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Poetry is Currency, Dusie, and many other publications. She enjoys coaching people to help them make space for creativity, rebellion, and authenticity in their lives, work, and family spaces.