Personal Archive

Steffi Tad-y

After Joanne Arnott

I placed years of work inside a word cloud
generator in an attempt to sift through
a record of racing thoughts I prefer
as rain on my rubber boots, small & wet,
I can shake off by the door beside a mop
& a red bucket. The words in large serif
a constellation on the screen: woman, want,
trees, arms, home, called, look, enough.
You may lose face, but what happens
& grows in you is what gives you a vision.
This morning shade once auburn has now
marooned. A cul-de-sac to park sunsets.
Woman. Want. Trees. Arms. Home. Called.
Look. Enough. Each full stop unspooling
the cardinal & bluebird privacy of things.



Steffi Tad-y is a Filipina writer based in Vancouver, B.C., in the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, & Tsleil-Waututh nations. Her first poetry chapbook was published by Frog Hollow Press in 2019. To watch the Toronto Raptors play live is part of her bucket list. One of her current and pressing goals is to write a funny poem.