Magnetic North

And so it may start here,
in the doctor’s office, in front
of a no longer blank page,

or at home when I find myself
unmoored from a body
whose borders I can’t define.

The edges of unknowing
begin to recede like
the thickened ice that pulls away

from the pond’s ragged shore,
leaving a dark liquid space
unadorned and much too deep

though it’s just a thin rift.
Nothing a late snow couldn’t
cover like a fragile promise.

But the truth, it seems, like me,
is as restless as the earth’s
magnetic north pole, constantly

in motion, never quite
where we expect it to be.
Changing course, tilting away.

Each test rules out what isn’t
or cannot be until something
sticks. A sense of division

defines this new landscape,
the Before and After me.
My magnetic north fluid,

inconstant, yet not wrong,
and now that I’m here
this is the path I must walk.

Dagne Forrest’s poetry has appeared in journals in Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. In 2021 she was one of 15 poets featured in The League of Canadian Poets’ annual Poem in Your Pocket campaign, had a poem shortlisted for the UK’s Bridport Prize, and won first prize in the Hammond House Publishing International Literary Prize (Poetry). Her creative nonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Lake Effect, Paper Dragon, and Sky Island Journal. Learn more at dagneforrest.com.