Uncooked by Katrina Lemaire
walking down the sidewalk
a freshly cracked egg sits with a
cigarette snuffed in the yolk
embers still burning
sewer stink puffing through grates
putrid & acrid
a man hunched in fetal position
at the corner of a tim hortons
a spine of metal buildings
bends into view
eyes globbed
electric billboard ads buzzing
words warbled in digital print:
world on fire
your hand finds mine
curls in like smoke
fingertips tracing river lines
in my palm
saying to breathe
it’ll be okay
we are still uncooked
“This poem was inspired by the odd account of seeing a rogue egg cracked open on the sidewalk with a cigarette butted in the yolk. As a newly initated city girl, I have seen a lot of strange things. However the egg and cigarette on the sidewalk really sparked some sort of inspiration. So, “Uncooked” was born as a bizarre city-centric poem. It has been submitted to multiple magazines, and after a while, I decided to trash this piece as I felt it only existed in a space of spontaneous creativity with no room to be anything truly literary.”
Katrina Lemaire is a poet and fiction writer based in Toronto, ON. Inspired by gothic literature and the uncanny, her work often focuses on eco-horror, wispy folklore, and dead darlings. You can find her publications haunting around Crow & Crosskeys Magazine, Soft Star Magazine, and Plenitude Magazine among others. Twitter: @bookishmoons.