RHONDA MINO-MELANSON
Memories and Condolences
you'd have died for your kid
to not be king of the misfits
even if it meant layering her
brain with one shakespearean
line, a benevolent osmosis till
she could recite it by rote and
grandiose flair, an almighty
regna with ponytailed spaghetti
hair and lopsided crown
even when she made mobiles of
dead barbies during her goth days
and the kids in her straight ass town
tried to run her down with pickup
trucks, your Aslan was in for a little
bloodletting, both furious and righteous
if only in fantasy
you had pot-bellied dreams that
hugged the constellations even when
they would wind you up dead in a
field in northern saskatchewan
yet even the wreckage became a
metaphor for tragic heroes and
lions that will not necessarily rise
from the dead.
Rhonda Mino-Melanson specialized in creative writing in the Artist In The Community Education program
at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She has been published in various print and online publications such
as
Dance For Death, Regina Weese, The Droplet Journal (US) and
First Time (UK). She has also entered
playwriting competitions such as the Ottawa Little Theatre One Act Playwriting Competition. After a long drought of not
writing or hating what she wrote, she has returned with a focused voice. (
rmelanson32@cogeco.ca)