Crab Voice
In ‘Dream Hypnosis’ by Matthew Walsh, the inability to speak — or, truly, to be heard — is both curse and blessing.
Enjoy the opening stanzas, excerpted here from Issue 25, Winter 2020, on sale now, until July 31st.
Dream Hypnosis
by Matthew Walsh
Maybe it would be nice to be hypnotized
by my dreams. They are little dreams
where I want to read a poem for you in
my crab voice though you hate astrology.
It is from a book I bought while a little
tipsy the other night and the words were
simply bubbles from my ocean mouth &
I had tried saving my own poem on my phone.
I could not be hypnotized once in Slave Lake
though my eyes were veils, black and white.
I have to take care of my feet and buy them
a brand-new loofah the colour of clown hair.
I identify wholeheartedly with the fool, their
esoteric system of dreams and interpretations.
& my literal dream where I have a hard shell
because I am a crab-human with concerns.
They are little dreams where you find crab-me,
& put me in an ice cream bucket type Vancouver condo …
Read the rest of this beautiful poem in Issue 25, Winter 2020, ON SALE now until July 31st!
Matthew Walsh grew up in Nova Scotia and now lives in Toronto. Their debut book These are not the potatoes of my youth was a finalist for the Trillium and Gerald Lampert Awards. Matthew’s poetry has appeared in The Malahat Review and Arc. We published their poem ‘Tool Shed’ in Pulp Literature Issue 10, Summer 2016.
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