First Love
She tried to love him less
To make the phone calls more infrequent.
To think of love as a conspiracy
Between sadness and sadism.
For a while she even begged her breasts To stop growing.
Her bedsheets were damp
Soaked by the rain of mixed feelings Her heart fluttered
From anxiety and innocent shame.
He sent her a train ticket
To come see him in the nearby village. He lived across the border
With the enemies of her compatriots. She hated politics
And longed for a future without them.
A bouquet of wild flowers, Baby’s breath,
White and purple carnations, And pink and red roses, Arrived at her doorstep,
With a brief note:
“Here are flowers for the cemetery And flowers of romance.
Forever here for you. Your darling.”
Shaun Day Woods is a poet and writer living on Gabriola Island, the unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation. He studied Liberal Arts at Dalhousie University and is a member of Gabriola Poetry Society and the Federation of BC Writers. His work has appeared in The Fifth Estate, The Oystercatcher, Elements of Conception, The Poet’s Coven, and Mauvaise Herbe. Shaun is the author of Dancing and Digging: Original Proverbs on Freedom and Nature published by Nightforest Press. His collection of radical essays, Land and Freedom, was published and sold over 10,000 copies. Shaun is the former poetry editor of Minus Tides magazine and former owner of Abraxas Books. In the past, he has hosted many readings and book launches on various Gulf Islands of BC. Currently, Shaun is the editor of Night Forest Press and in 2022, he edited the anthology Flower Bombs: Poems of Love & Rage in the Anthropocene.
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