Poem of the Month
Feel Happier in Nine Seconds

By Linda Besner

Published on December 15, 2017

I learned the secret of serenity
by waterboarding daffodils.
My Buddha is landfill.
My mantra choked

from a bluebird’s neck.
It’s ruthless, the pursuit
of happiness. Eighteen
seconds have elapsed.

My happiness is twice
your size, gold-chained
to the lamppost. It strains
its waistcoat as it grows.

Flog a sunbeam, harness
a cloud. You should be feeling
five times happier now:
the world is your Kleenex.

It’s been a long sixty-three
seconds in Attawapiskat,
but my happiness digs
diamond mines, slobbers

parasol knobs on the Rhine.
I sweeten my cantaloupe
with stolen breastmilk.
Peak joy is at nine

times nine – saddle up, dear.
An asteroid of happiness
is blasting through
the atmosphere.

More Poetry

Vibration Desks

Inside its surround
folded in, I’m a fold
of it, I’ve never left atmospheric
borders I engorge to the point of
enfolded

Salter Street Strike

One with the strength of many
alone in the distant North End.
People before profit.

it’s a seemingly endless descent.
Marlyn’s streets do not resemble
one with the strength of many

morbid singularities
entirely unaware of
people before profit

Centre: Eochaill

Rise with the centre of the island, its thorny-backed middle. Climb, upwards from the main road, follow the ...