Poetry by Jason Heroux

     Danny Navarro CC




Hidden Valley Trail 
 
            I
Make me a clear night
sky, make me
a dry lakebed.
 
 
            II
Where no stars shine,
where no lake wakes.
 
 
            III
Make me live in the world
without me.
 
 
            IV
Like an echo, I was heard
by the ones who spoke me.
 
 
            V
Like a bucket from the well,
I was raised
by whoever lowered me.
 
 
            VI
Let me be repaired by those
who broke me.
 
 
            VII
Make me live without me.
 

 


Pathway
 
After death
the final breath
of an orange lingers
near the peeled
canyons of its skin.
 
Our grief’s graffiti
has no wall.
 
We feel the way
footprints feel in the snow,
our lives shaped
 
by what has moved on.
 
I have a pathway
buried within me,
waiting for your step.
​



Jason Heroux lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. His publications include the short story collection Survivors of the Hive (Radiant Press, 2023) and the prose poem collection Like a Trophy from the Sun (Guernica Editions, 2024).