You Might Be Sorry You Read This

Michelle Poirier Brown is an internationally published poet, performer, and photographer. She is nêhiýaw-iskwêw and a citizen of the Métis Nation. A feminist activist, now retired from careers as a speech writer, conflict analyst, and federal treaty negotiator, she writes full-time and has taken up birdwatching. She lives on unceded syilx territory in Vernon, BC.

"Michelle Poirier Brown’s first collection of poetry is accomplished and gripping. In her five-decade story, perceptions, denial, emotional embroilments and poignant tenderness are peeled back and examined. As the narrative builds, we encounter the sheer alchemical power of poetry. This is rare. You Might Be Sorry You Read This will change you." Betsy Warland, Bloodroot: Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss

• 1 The Father I Had3 God Was a Baby4 A Child’s Book of Holy Services6 Her Breath on My Face8 Other Side of the Glass10 Effect on Her Throat11 The House on Strathnaver Avenue15 Mothers Who Know16 The Thing About Snow22 Photograph23 Under the Covers25 The Girls I Grew Up With Are Everywhere27 Short Change28 After the Test29 Walk on the Left-Hand Side30 5:53 PM32 A Perspective on Women33 Collard Greens34 Lasts36 I’m Allowed to Have Whatever Kind of Father I Want38 Intimacy39 On the Porch41 At Times, My Teeth Chatterabout face46 What It’s Like to Have My Face47 Understanding My Face52 Wake54 A Fragile Defiance55 Smoke57 Winnipeg Trip59 Commitment61 Two Mornings, 201863 Boxed64 Those I Call Friends66 Duck Ugly67 Beneficiaries of a Genocide69 Slow70 Sometimes You Learn Things Quite Late in the Game72 Something Purple75 what it is like to be this extreme and appear normal78 The Other Grandmother80 Self-Portrait of the Poet83 addendum87 poetic statement90 acknowledgements"