Jaime Speed (Colours of Love and Barriers)

Jaime Speed

Jaime Speed (she/her) lives, works, and plays in Saskatchewan, Canada. A fan of reading, gardening, throwing weights, and dancing badly, she has recently been published in The Rat’s Ass Review, Hobo Camp Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, OyeDrum Magazine, Global Poemic, Psaltery & Lyre, Channel, New Feathers Anthology, The Wild Word, They Call Us, Eunoia Review, Flora Fiction, Neologism Poetry Journal, The Whorticulturalist, and The Pine Cone Review, along with collections by Ship Street Poetry, Gnashing Teeth Publications, White Stag Publishing, and Indie Blu(e) Publishing. Her prose poetry was selected for Best Small Fictions 2021 by Sonder Press.

The friendship bracelet

like goodbad

    or was it badgood

or laugh our ribs

into toughness

C’s mom doles out cans of Sprite

but our fridge’s stocked

with Choose Up & stirred

iced tea, pickled eggs shelled

in tinfoil

or run the grain

elevator’s wingspan

cut like the sideways wind

hands cupping each other’s hands

wrists jangling

mom makes vareniki

with schmaundt fat & strawberries

but C stirs it into glop on the plate

says her grandmother doesn’t make perogies

like this

10 year olds armed with Nerf guns

stick em up

C’s mom writes us off

a note & we saunter cool, trying

to look careless walking back into town

with her cigarettes

& our scuffed knees

we learn how to hide

our crop tops under layers

of safekeeping

the little blue ones fill

our tummies with warm heart

beats swallowed whole

like seeds

some friendships have a touch

of magic

hiding in bathroom stalls

during recess

the sign for $1.99

fresh blueberries

on the edge of town

splintered wood

or night snack we rummage

mom’s cabinet & pantry for the secret

telling nights of who falls

asleep first

who leads

the prayer

I like her cold wrists, the best friend

& medic alert bracelets

hallmarks of her bravery, insistent

as church bells are

counting on a lifetime

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Colours of Love :: Setu, July 2022