Michael Goodfellow

Did Endings Have Shape

The way a ghost, like rust
takes the form of another, 

the way smoke when it rose
turned the color of sky 

or were they shaped like flame,
dim the beginning, coal bright the end

Was it better each morning
to begin in the dark 

and when they said it rang hollow
did they mean in a tree

Was it true there were marks
to show what had been

When we meet the dead
are we covered in rust 

Or was it only about air
and what it did with water

Did metal want light,
did want make it true 

Or was everything iron,
life polish and oil, 

bone crinkle of a keyed lock
Would it be like spring, that green 

would darken it, light salted
as it is underwater

Would you write it backward
then read it aloud 

The ending was true
if not the story 

The house disappeared
but not the ghost 

The leaves stayed green
but the forest died 

The air turned cold
then forms appeared

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Michael Goodfellow is the author of the poetry collection, Naturalism, an Annotated Bibliography, published by Gaspereau Press, 2022, and of a collection in draft titled Folklore of Lunenburg County, which is supported by a Research & Creation Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. His poems have appeared in The Literary Review of Canada, The Dalhousie Review, The Cortland Review, Reliquiae and elsewhere. He lives in Nova Scotia.