Two Sparrows in a Hurricane & Two Sparrows by Nicole Dalcourt

TWO SPARROWS IN A HURRICANE

It was warm for October and I waited for the water

like I wait for my father – breath in a cage and fingers

crossed behind my back. But he doesn’t come, no matter

the years I wait. I watched as the sky turned the colour

of an old wound, thick and purple and just out of reach.

I knew the rain was coming, fresh as my shame that even fathers

don’t stay and when the creek rose, the water spread like a secret

until everything tasted like mud. This town knows that I look for him

in the arms of skinny boys, damp with promises that I’ll finally belong.

Lord knows I’ll run my tongue along anything that looks like love,

so I trade my morality for higher ground and wonder why I burn

when I’m soaked to the bone.

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TWO SPARROWS

my father

does

stay and

I finally belong.

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NICOLE DALCOURT is an award-winning Canadian writer and poet living on the outskirts of

Toronto, Ontario. Her debut poetry collection, What Remains, uses a confessional voice to explore

themes of grief, heartbreak, rebirth and belonging. Dalcourt’s work has appeared in Writerly Magazine,

The King City Mosaic and on the Viewless Wings Podcast. When not writing, Nicole hosts and

participates in open mics around the region and pursues her passion for teaching poetry skills

through in-person and online workshops.

@nicoledalcourtwrites