Non-fiction & Mixtapes

Poems on Music/Ekphrastic Poetry

POETRY

The sky is brittle paper
on a salt-rimmed horizon
— a smog bath ring —
blushing unwashed skin
of alleys, bruised
mint not cutting
garbage juice breeze
or piss in the park
but my eyes are scanning
for more than just survival,
reading the gutters for grass
brushing off grey plastic
as musty cracks in concrete
feed the earth more moss
with scraps for sight
and scent nebulized sweet
in river algae, a trade-wind
sucking away city char and
exhaling perfume warming
from the toasting bones
of wooden beams in
weary-of-century-homes
— front doors agape —
dressed in a décollage
of matte dust paint where
this baked street has green shade
under its sharp tannin maple
sugaring the signs of triumph
in such muddle

Jessica Lee McMillan © 2021

In response to J.D. Harms’ prompt “consciousness in stream”.

ARTIST HIGHLIGHT

Listening to Plant and Animals, you are in the hands of superior songwriting and lush, textured musical arrangements.

The Montreal-based trio Plants and Animals caught my attention back in 2012 when Canada’s national broadcasting network offered amazing indie podcasts featuring the best out of the scene bursting with Indie giants like Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Grimes, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Great Lake Swimmers, Wintersleep, Mother Mother, Metric, Chad Vangaalen, Wolf Parade — more bands in a few years than in my lifetime — breaking through to international audiences.

Plants and Animals have commanded critical appreciation and their sound has…