My ancestors wake
in the
bone-soaked earth
tongue their way around
tree roots
spit half worms
tell me
dirt-mouthed
secrets
lick my
living wounds
I move organs aside
sit
split-fleshed to
clothe their
larvae limbs
ancient
memories recomposing
Tina Wayland recently completed her Creative Writing MA at Concordia University, where she won the department’s David McKeen Award in 2021 and 2023. She’s been published in such places as carte blanche, yolk, Headlight Anthology, and LBRNTH, as well as longlisted for the CBC Nonfiction Prize and shortlisted for Room Magazine’s Short Forms Contest. Tina is currently completing a manuscript about her Lithuanian grandmother, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
