Suburban Psalm

I walk through the valley of suburbia
seeking no more evil. Two women,

stooped with back cracks over sidewalks,
collect the daily litter of others. Two

streets over, a multitude of child-painted
birdhouses sway from fledgling elms

planted in a boulevard, invisible to all
save nesting birds and slow walkers.

There’s a dream to carry
where we see goodness and mercy

comfort us through a single day. Look!
He braked so a car could merge. She

shovelled her neighbour’s walk. A stranger
stopped to say, “Your scarf is so beautiful.”

*

Born and raised in rural Manitoba, Leanne Shirtliffe is a writer and educator now based in Calgary, Alberta. Some of Leanne’s recent poetry appears in The Kenyon Review, The Baltimore Review, and Funicular. She writes the Substack, Chasing Wonder.