Picnics

Amritpal Singh Arora


My father once told me
of a pond
fed by willows weeping
where waterlilies refuse to float
and instead, mingle
with dreams of immigrants
that have come to drown

Once lumber has passed
through callused hands and
pills are taken
to put hammer to nail,
immigrants descend upon this pond
to cast their dreams and watch as they skip along its surface
until swallowed by the muddied waters
and ripples fade to stillness

My father once told me
of a pond
around which they sit and
fill their cups with thermos’d chai
and refill their will with thoughts
of those left behind

To whom they pen songs
with sweat and tears as ink
and sing them as
nightingales lament



Amritpal Singh Arora is a writer of poetry, working on his first collection. He is a family physician in Burnaby, British Columbia. His poetry is centered around themes of medicine, grief, domestic violence and navigating the world as a visible minority. His work has previously appeared in the Canadian Family Physician.