saturday night all over again girls smoked down to the filter bloomed girls craving pollen dropping petal by petal girls will fall from windows shower in villeray mile end hochelaga pretty girls with conditioned hair wafting clinique happy discounted at the department store bring your umbrellas girls will rain to the ground dust ash from their dresses to get to their lovers’ homes legs twisted from the fall elbows knees palms bloodied gravel- bedded wounds they’ll get up anyway and all those boys will cover their injured limbs in mickey mouse band aids
prévision météorologique
samedi soir une fois encore des filles fumées jusqu’au filtre des filles fleurs en manque de pollen qui s’étiolent pétale après pétale des filles tomberont des fenêtres crachin dans villeray mile end hochelaga de jolies filles aux cheveux hydratés sentant le clinique happy en solde chez la baie sortez vos parapluies elles s’écraseront lourdement au sol épousseteront la cendre de leurs robes pour remonter chez leurs amants les jambes tordues par l’impact les coudes les genoux les paumes en sang de la garnotte plein leurs blessures elles remonteront quand même et les garçons qu’elles rejoignent mettront sur leurs corps accidentés des band aids mickey mouse
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third date
looking at the ceiling of your room it’s time for confessions the post-coital chalice you confess all your exes are screamers the rest of your phrase slipping a sigh I want to take back the echo ask what kind of screams gah you reply crazy screams i fling on my clothes won’t see you ever again definitely don’t walk me out that’s too proper i’d rather take back everything i left behind slamming the door of your flat repatriate my residues my shedded cells where you’ll sleep tonight and tomorrow and the day after till you decide to dissolve me and wash from your sheets the remaining tatters of my skin let them longlive me let them hug you sweetly and shush don’t talk about girls like that let my sebum and scent sing you to sleep and watch your slumber while exhaling in your ear that all the nutcases the psychos the wack jobs that all the crazies are all my sisters
troisième date
on regarde le plafond de ta chambre c’est le moment des confessions I guess calice de post-coït cave tu m’avoues qu toutes tes ex sont des crisses dans un soupir sille le reste de ta phrase je veux récupérer l’echo te demande des crisse de quoi han tu me réponds des crisse de folles je me rhabille rapidement ne te reverrai jamais ne me reconduis surtout pas ça va être correct mais j’aurais préféré reprendre tout ce que j’ai laissé de moi en fermant la porte de ton appartement dans de grands mouvement de bras rapatrier mes résidus mes cellules mortes dans lesquelles tu te coucheras ce soir et demain et après-demain jusqu’à ce que tu décides de me dissoudre en mettant tes draps au lavage puisqu’ils doivent rester la les lambeaux de ma peau qu’ils me prolongent qu’ils t’étreignent doucement et te chuchotent qu’on ne dit pas ça des filles qu’elles sont folles que mon sébum et les restes de mon parfum te bercent et veillent ton sommeil en te soufflant sur la nuque que toutes les bâtardes les démentes les étrangères que toutes le folles sont mes soeurs
"Royaume Scotch Tape" is published by L'Hexagone and is available here
Dr. Chloé Savoie-Bernard is a writer who works various forms: poetry, short story, literary criticism, and translation. As an editor she works at L’Hexagone, a publishing house in Montréal. She is also developing a practice in performance. She has published several books, most notably "Des femmes savantes", (Triptyque, 2016) and most recently "Sainte Chloé de l’amour" (Hexagone, 2021). Her current book project focuses on fragmented kinships and constructions of memory between fathers and daughters within the context of first generation Haitian immigrants in francophone Canada.She has contributed to magazines including Granta, Spirale, and Lettres Québécoises. She lives in Montreal.
April Yee’s poetry, fiction, and essays have been named Best of the Net, two-time The Best American Essays Notable, and winner of the Manchester Fiction Prize and Ivan Juritz Prize. A Harvard alumna and former journalist, she reported in more than a dozen countries before moving to London, where she is a Spread the Word trustee and Refugee Journalism Project mentor. Her work is in The Times Literary Supplement, The Offing, and Electric Literature, and she has received support from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Southbank Centre, the National Book Critics Circle, and the University of East Anglia.
