Willow Springs latest issue

I received the new issue of Willow Springs in the mail today. Some terrific poems here. "Throne" by Joseph Millar is about replacing a toilet and is full of wonderful details and images; "Techniques of Avalanche Survival" by Michael Clark makes poetry from a manual of survival instructions; and "Canaries" by Louise Jenkins is a terrific take on childhood memory, what is real, what is imagined.


Canaries

I remember when I was a child I had a pair of canaries in a cage in my bedroom. I had the idea that I would raise and sell canaries. I asked one of my sisters if she remembered them. She remembered that they were parakeets, not canaries. I asked another sister. She said didn't remember any canaries but she remembered how mean I was to her. My youngest sister doesn't remember having birds but thinks that we had a pet rabbit. I don't remember that. My brother thinks we had a pet crow that talked. I don't remember a crow but I remember we had a myna bird for a while that said "How ya doin'?" but he belonged to someone else. My mother says she would never have allowed birds in the house. I remember how the female canary ignored the male but chirped plaintively to a mockingbird that sang outside my window all summer long.