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.
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