Skip to content
logo TNQ
  • Read
    • Dispatches
    • Issues
    • Online Exclusives
    • Under Review
    • Free Archive
      • Poetry
      • Fiction
      • Nonfiction
  • TNQ Presents
    • Wild Writers Literary Festival
    • Writing on the Land: A Wild Writers Retreat
    • The Vestige and TNQ Story
    • Spirit Ink
    • The X-Page Workshop
    • Parallel Homepage
  • Subscribe
    • Print Magazine
    • Digital Edition
    • Free Archive
  • Submit
    • Contests
    • Regular Submissions
  • Donate
  • Shop
    • Where to Buy
  • My Account
  • About TNQ
  • Our Team
  • Contact Us
  • Read
    • Dispatches
    • Issues
    • Online Exclusives
    • Under Review
    • Free Archive
      • Poetry
      • Fiction
      • Nonfiction
  • TNQ Presents
    • Wild Writers Literary Festival
    • Writing on the Land: A Wild Writers Retreat
    • The Vestige and TNQ Story
    • Spirit Ink
    • The X-Page Workshop
    • Parallel Homepage
  • Subscribe
    • Print Magazine
    • Digital Edition
    • Free Archive
  • Submit
    • Contests
    • Regular Submissions
  • Donate
  • Shop
    • Where to Buy
  • My Account
  • About TNQ
  • Our Team
  • Contact Us
Login
$0.00 0 Cart

Not an Elegy

By Kirsteen MacLeod

  • We left you,
  • ashes scattered
  • from a wooden box
  • onto lichened
  • gravestones above
  • the blue-grey sea.
  •  
  • No flowery words,
  • no birdsong, no bright
  • blossoms, no prayers—
  • the day was dreich,
  • dismal, hard to bear,
  • with raw winds that cut.
  •  
  • Tempest of a father,
  • I know it was what
  • you wanted, but
  • I can’t bear to
  • think of how we
  • turned away,
  •  
  • left you only
  • our hot tears
  • as your stubborn grit
  • dispersed, dust
  • on weathered stones
  • in a gale

Read more

  • Kirsteen MacLeod
  • Issue 172
  • Poetry

Post navigation

Staying Power
Daisies and Dusk

Territorial Acknowledgement

The New Quarterly is based in Waterloo, Ontario, on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabeg, and Neutral Peoples. We acknowledge that this land is part of the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations of the Grand River as part of the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784.

As a literary magazine devoted to storytelling, we recognize that stories have long been a way of knowing, preserving, and sharing in Indigenous cultures. We honour the generations of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples who have cared for these lands and continue to do so. We commit to listening, learning, and amplifying Indigenous voices, and to supporting pathways for truth and reconciliation through the stories we publish.

Facebook-f Instagram Linkedin-in Tiktok X-twitter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibilty

MAGAZINE

  • About
  • Our Team
  • Where to Buy

CONTRIBUTE

  • Submit
  • Volunteer
  • Our Board
  • Donate

CONNECT

  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter

Subscribe to our Newsletter

CONNECT