I see him sunburned in Versailles
as ragged in the splendour of the court
as weeds among ermine,
attempting to explain pure gold he’d found
in snow, and crises on the rivers near Quebec.
Royal curiosity was pricked, amused,
but the Atlantic gulf he’d jumped
tripped and bewildered nobility.
This wanderer was as strange in France
as if his face were green …
* poem, in its entirety, is available in the printed version of the current issue.
Bio:
Hamish Guthrie’s poems have appeared in more than 30 magazines and journals in Canada, the United States, and England, including the Malahat Review, the Fiddlehead, and the Yale Literary Magazine. His book of poems Love Hurries This has just been released by At Bay Press. He lives in Oakville, Ontario.