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Untitled Selections From L’Adolescence

June 11, 2020/ by Marie-Andrée Gill, translated by Kristen Renee Miller

[translated poetry]

And when the night draws its celebrations to a close, the hares undress all alone, sexes smeared from long storms. Perhaps we’ve forgotten that the body, yes the body, finds a desolate kind of beauty once exposed.

*     *     *

our smoke-scented dreams sketch
a flock of snow geese
on the ceiling of possibilities

I have a ski-doo on asphalt at night
in my belly
with all its shooting sparks

*     *     *

Balsam fir dance in slow motion and the earth
shudders as I come
as my fingers find the burning ember.

I want this vertigo as a vow
to sap the cruel beauty
of oil-slick rainbows.

Et quand la nuit ferme les fêtes les lièvres se déshabillent tout seuls, le sexe barbouillé de longues tempêtes. C’est là peut-être on ne sait plus que le corps, oui le corps, retrouve sa plus belle misère du blanc des yeux.

*     *     *

nos rêves sentent la boucane et dessinent
un voilier d’oies blanches
sur le plafond des possibles

j’ai dans le ventre un ski-doo la nuit sur l’asphalte
avec toutes les étincelles que ça peut faire

*     *     *

Les sapins dansent en slow motion et la terre
d’orgasme vibre
de mes doigts ramenant la braise

Je veux le vertige comme une promesse
et enfin manger la beaute cruelle
des arcs-en-ciel dans les flaques de gaz

Translator’s Statement:

The three poems included here belong to a longer sequence, “L’Adolescence,” within Marie-Andrée Gill’s second poetry collection, SPAWN. SPAWN examines the layered influences of twenty-first-century imperialism, ecological blight, and ’90s-kid culture upon the speaker’s life and home on the Mashteuiatsh reserve in Quebec. The “L’Adolescence” sequence offers fragments and scenes from the speaker’s coming-of-age and her exploration of desire within the collection’s broader themes, drawing upon images from the natural landscape—balsam fir, hares, snow geese—as well as those of industrialization and mass culture—arcades, oil slicks, ski-doos.

Amber Estes Thieneman

Kristen Renee Miller’s poems and translations have appeared in POETRY, The Kenyon Review, Guernica, and Best New Poets 2018. She is the English-language translator of SPAWN by Ilnu Nation poet Marie-Andrée Gill. A recipient of honors and fellowships from The Kennedy Center, The Humana Festival, The Kentucky Arts Council, and elsewhere, she lives in Louisville, KY, where she is the managing editor for Sarabande.

Sophie Gagnon-Bergeron

Marie-Andrée Gill is Pekuakamishkueu and a poet. Mother, friend, lover, student, her research and creative work concern transpersonal and decolonial love. Bridging kitsch and existentialism, her writing is rooted in territory and interiority, combining her Quebec and Ilnu identities. She is the author of three books from La Peuplade: Béante, Frayer, and Chauffer le dehors.

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Friday Lunch Blog

Friday Lunch! A serving of contemporary essays published every Friday.

Today’s course:

Where Are You From?

August 5, 2022/in Blog / Majella Pinto
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The Old Folks’ Home

July 22, 2022/in Blog / Karen Gaul Schulman
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Peace, Love, and a lot of Loud Rock & Roll

June 17, 2022/in A Transfer, Blog / Sunee Lyn Foley
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Midnight Snack

A destination for all your late night obsessions.

Tonight’s bites:

QVC-land

May 6, 2022/in A Transfer, Midnight Snack / D. E. Hardy
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Escape Artists at the End of the World

April 29, 2022/in A Transfer, Midnight Snack / Lisa Levy
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The House in the Middle

April 15, 2022/in A Transfer, Midnight Snack / Megan Vasquez
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More coming soon!

Amuse-Bouche

Little bites every Monday to whet your appetite!

Today’s plate:

My Mother’s Hands

August 8, 2022/in Amuse-Bouche / Annie Marhefka
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Defy Gravity

August 1, 2022/in Amuse-Bouche / Megan Peck
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Little Shrimp

July 25, 2022/in Amuse-Bouche / Karen Poppy
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School Lunch

An occasional Wednesday series dishing up today’s best youth writers.

Today’s slice:

I’ve Stayed in the Front Yard

May 12, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Brendan Nurczyk
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A Communal Announcement

April 28, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Isabella Dail
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Seventeen

April 14, 2021/in School Lunch, School Lunch 2021 / Abigail E. Calimaran
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Word From the Editor

The variety in this issue speaks not only to the eclectic world we inhabit but to the power of the human spirit. We live in an uncertain world. In the U.S., we’re seeing mass shootings daily. Across the world, we’re still very much in a pandemic, some being trapped in their homes for weeks on end, others struggling to stay alive in hospitals. War continues to wage in Ukraine. Iran and North Korea are working diligently to make nuclear weapons. The list goes on. Still, we have artists who are willing and able to be vulnerable with one another, to share stories and art to help us try and make sense of our world.

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