Three Poems by David Groulx

Three Poems by David Groulx

TwentyThree
The towns people made enough donations
To buy a house with all the ramps and
hallways wide enough for a wheelchair
after he came home from Afghanistan
his arms and legs still there
he was twentythree
It was the least they could do

TwentyFour
Crowds gather on the bridges
That cross over the 401
waving flags and saluting
crying even
as the hearse goes by
His mother is not here
They take picture with their phones and sing
Oh Canada
Oh Kandahar
another soldier from across the world
they believe the body inside is a hero
dead soldiers always seem to be
inside is only the torso

Tonight and for the rest of her life
his mother will be without a son

TwentyFive
There is a man on my tv
selling holy water
20$ a vial
It will make you rich, it will saaave yur lifea
It will maa-ake miracleaza
These things are not miracles
and I already know
Water is sacred

Author’s Bio: David Groulx was raised in the Northern Ontario mining community of Elliot Lake. He is proud of his Aboriginal roots – his mother is Ojibwe Indian and his father French Canadian.

After receiving his BA from Lakehead University where he won the Munro Poetry Prize. David studied creative writing at the En’owkin Centre in Penticton, B.C. where he won the Simon J Lucas Jr. Memorial Award for poetry. He has also studied at The University of Victoria Creative Writing Program. He has written six poetry books – Night in the Exude (Tyro Publications: Sault Ste Marie,1997); and The Long Dance (Kegedonce Press,2000). Under God’s Pale Bones (Kegedonce Press,2010), A Difficult Beauty is due out in Autumn 2011 (Wolsak & Wynn:Hamilton), Rising A Distant Dawn (BookLand Press:Toronto) is due out in the Spring of 2012 as well as Our Life Is Ceremony (Lummox Press: California).

David is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, as well as a member of The Ontario Poetry Society. He recently won the 3rd annual PoetryNOW Battle of the Bards. His poetry has appeared in a 115 publications in England, Australia, Germany, Austria, Turkey, New Zealand and the USA. He lives in a log home near Ottawa, Canada.