Local Illumination by Bill Howell

                       Greg Parish CC



LOCAL ILLUMINATION


What else do you need to know?

Outside our boxes of light, 
ghosts we no longer believe in 
refuse to flicker or flinch at the edges, 
prefer to turn us into fellow travellers. 
A stream of vacant streetcars 
trundles along the East End run— 
over-lit studios full of dead air. 
And Jay Kim, an all too visible witness 
who can’t see anything, crouches 
behind the front counter following 
gunshots across from his corner store. 

What else does he need to know?

Just beyond our cooking fires & torches, 
night-blind wolves wait 
patiently for chances to turn 
elders into ancestors. 
An old woman sheds her blanket, 
walks out in the strange May snow 
to interview the fireflies, 
her inner light an incidental miracle. 
But the fireflies have long since
forgotten to remind the wolves 
to keep their social distance.

What else do they need to know?

​

Bill Howell has five collections, including Porcupine Archery (Insomniac Press). He has recent work in The Antigonish Review, Canadian Literature, Event, Juniper, Naugatuck River Review, Prairie Fire, and Vallum. Colloquial, anecdotal, and grounded in a shared world, his poems have been widely anthologized. Born in Liverpool, England, he grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has lived in Toronto for more than half his life. Bill was a producer-director and program exec at CBC Radio Drama for three decades. ABC and BBC-4 aired his Midnight Cab series, and Nightfall (NPR) has become an internet classic.

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