Bad Wife

Micheline Maylor is a Poet Laureate Emeritus of Calgary (2016-18) and was the Calgary Public Library Author in Residence in Fall, 2016. She teaches creative writing at Mount Royal University. Her most recent book Little Wildheart (UAlberta Press) was long-listed for both the Pat Lowther and Raymond Souster awards. Find her online at www.michelinemaylor.com.

"These poems will wreck your home, wake you up with their noisy sex, devastate like a Wall Street banker on a Saturday night bender. These poems will sober you up in the morning with the strength of flowers, of prayer flags. These poems understand everything you’ve lived through. They show you where you live."

• Contents1 How to Become a Bad Wife2 Epithalamion: The Grand Canyon was a Long Way Down3 The Mean Game4 Yesterday, I went to the market5 The Crow Takes the Body6 Scrapbook7 Your Motto8 The Sleep9 The Bad Wife’s Ankle10 Two Men11 How To Become A Bad Mother12 (N)Ever Thought13 How to Have Encounters with Foxes14 The Danger of Georgian Guest Houses15 The Bad Wife’s Clavicle16 The Pine Siskin17 And Let’s Not Forget Christina Lake18 The Crow Gives a Body19 The Bad Wife’s Vulva20 Portrait of My Life as a Nurse Log21 Guilt22 Divorce Sudoku23 So, Say I24 The Moral Responsibility to be Intelligent25 This is My 21st Wedding Anniversary26 Don’t Feed the Animals27 She tells me28 There is No Word29 Reasons for My Husband’s Inattentiveness30 Styx and Stones31 Vagabond32 How to Be a Bad Ex-Wife33 Double Fisting34 Become35 No Matter the Shape of Things, You are Much Missed36 Inclement Weather40 Omen: Calla Lilies73 Notes75 Acknowledgements77 Prologue: On Our First/Last Toast79 Epilogue