Seaglass
By Ben Wignall

 

Odds are I'll be lost in the litany of Abercrombie artists;
another unknown name,
my soul left to stuff bookstore shelves and yellow over the years.

 

But I’ll resist irrelevancy and wake up every morning like Camus for his coffee,
rising just to write.

 

Because poems give pleasure a name and my pain its purpose.
Every stanza carving out my place in the canon,
every word written in opposition to obscurity.

 

Such is the fate of so many faithful to their craft,
to write and then die.

To be tossed in the sea as sharp glass,
only to be found decades later,
smooth and finally beautiful.

 

So be it.
Whether my works are hung as stained glass to cast a room in rainbows,
or shattered,
cast to the side until death lets them rise and wash ashore.

 

Either way I will force my name into the world,
whether it’s remembered as a new King or another Kafka.

 

Ben Wignall from Canada is a third year Creative Writing student at Brock University. They have been previously published in Paloma Magazine and the 2022/23 Brock Creative Writing Anthology as well as 24 hour poetry night: Collections of Chaos. Ben is also the Editor-in-Chief of Balestra Magazine. In their spare time Ben can be found obsessing over coffee, complaining about Shakespeare, and training as a member of the Brock Varsity Fencing Team.