Writing Exercise

by Dominique Bernier-Cormier 

I asked my students to write about the future

and they wrote about standing

under a chandelier of moss. They didn’t write

chandelier, exactly, but I knew

what they meant. Jewels, hanging by a thread.

The shine and threat. I asked them

to go further. Cars just shadows of rust,

they wrote. Light streaming in

like in a video game temple. Further.

Ink turned to dark Dorito dust

and in their eyes I could see

the misspelled words of dictées

returning as bats. Even further. The faces

on the wings of moths

bigger than faces. I asked them to forget

themselves. The attendance list

burning at dusk. Every list. Further.

Further still. I asked them to describe

the silence. Not a soul, I said.

Until nothing of us is left. No human,

nothing of you, even. Just quiet. And still,

still, they wrote

It was so quiet I could hear

my own heart beat in my chest.

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Dominique Bernier-Cormier is a Québécois/Acadian poet whose work explores notions of hybridity, translation, and belonging. His poems have won Arc’s Poem of the Year, The Fiddlehead’s Ralph Gustafson Prize, and The Malahat Review’s Open Season Award. His latest book, Entre Rive and Shore, was a finalist for the BC & Yukon Book Prizes’ Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize.