Match Read Free Page A

island,
microbe foxtrotting on a slide. Will I blend
into the landscape with surprising guile,
or explode like an improvised device?
    *
    Flick, flick the switch.
Begin again slowly, approach
this dim blowhole. Holy antelope!
Come to steam at the well of the sink.
Wait motionless.
    So it lowers its mug to my palm full of water,
withdraws moistened, mammoth.
Blinks for me a while in the dark.

NOTES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    The italics in ‘Marriage, Early Days’ are taken from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein ; the split quote in ‘Anagnorisis with Sex Aid,’ ‘From the far side of the ocean/If I put the wheels in motion,’ is taken from Van Morrison’s song ‘Astral Weeks’; ‘Sonnet for the Uncanny Valley’ is based loosely on text from the RealDoll website: www.realdoll.com; and the epigraph that opens ‘Rubber Bride’ is taken from Louise Glück’s poem ‘Ithaca’ from her collection Meadowlands .

    Early versions of poems in this book were published in the magazines Grain , Riddle Fence and Event – my thanks to the editors. An early version of ‘My Cactus’ appeared on the parliamentary poet laureate website in 2008, under John Steffler’s watch.
    The Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council generously provided me with much-needed funding to work on this book, while the Banff Centre for the Arts gave me a wonderful place to live and work among friends for a month.
    Improbably, the RealDoll company in San Diego invited me to visit their factory to snoop on their production process, and, equally improbably, the University of Toronto gave me funding to make the trip. Thanks to both organizations for their sense of the fantastical.
    For their editorial first aid, I am indebted to Michael Nardone, Don McKay, George Elliott Clarke, Linda Besner, Lindsay Zier-Vogel and David Seymour. Thanks especially to Kevin Connolly, whose tenacious and insightful use of the question mark dragged many of these poems back from the brink.
    My gratitude to Alana, Evan and the other model human beings at Coach House Books for their elegant work.
    My love to Tom Howell, with thanks for the word ‘limpets’ and many others. And infinite gratitude to my family and friends for their aiding and abetting.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Helen Guri graduated from the University of Toronto’s Creative Writing program, and has taught writing at Humber College. Her work has appeared in many journals, including Arc, Descant, Event, The Fiddlehead and Grain . Match is her first collection. She lives in Toronto.

Typeset in Adobe Jenson and Edwardian Script
    Edited by Kevin Connolly
Designed by Alana Wilcox
Cover art, Mastodon , by Lori Nix, courtesy of the artist
Author photo by Tom Howell

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