My neighbour
Weeds the lawn on
Her knees
While her husband
Watches
Wearing socks
To his knees
(Iced water in his
Hands
Clinking as the cubes
Melt in the sun)
He tells her
Over there
Got another one
Good Lord
And Christ Jesus
They keep coming
What about
Chicken for dinner
Time and time again
She is there
Faded patches
On her jeans

Puneet Dutt’s debut collection of poetry, The Better Monsters (Mansfield Press), was a Finalist for the 2018 Trillium Book Award For Poetry and was Shortlisted for the 2018 Raymond Souster Award and was named one of “Ontario’s Best Books” by NOW Magazine. Her chapbook, PTSD south beach (Grey Borders Books), was a Finalist for the Breitling Chapbook Prize. She holds a MA in English from Ryerson University, and is a founding member and editorial board director at Canthius. Her most recent chapbook manuscript was Longlisted for the 2020 Frontier Digital Chapbook Contest, selected by Carl Phillips. Dutt is an immigrant/settler and currently lives in Markham with her husband and son.

Image by Adam Tagarro @skywarden