You can’t see
the small bones
of the five
girls who stopped
growing that day,
nor the worms
grown since their
decay, nor their
mothers’ arms
warm around
their killer’s
beloved, oh—
the eldest said
shoot me first,
stood in harm’s
way unafraid
of death wearing
an apron, like
her mother,
baking bread
for the one
with the gun.
Nickel Mines
Peace is shattered. Years later, a small poem comes unbidden, its music unearthing the unseen, twisting time and space and perspective into an oh of grief, a catalyst for peace--
About the Author
Barbara Nickel’s second collection of poetry, Domain, was listed in Quill & Quire’s Best Books of 2007. Her previous collection of poetry, The Gladys Elegies, won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award. Her work has appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies, including Notre Dame Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Ireland Review, The New Canon: An Anthology of Canadian Poetry, and The Walrus, and she is a winner of The Malahat Review Long Poem Prize. Barbara’s novel for children, Hannah Waters and the Daughter of Johann Sebastian Bach, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and won the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize. A new picture book, A Boy Asked the Wind, is forthcoming in 2013.