Daniela Elza

Vancouver, 2023

you speak to me in skylines|

                            the techno of   concrete
             walls|      | cacophonies of 

light   &   noise   collide|      with glass
& |  asphalt          |             |

instead of   ocean chants |   & mountains.
                                        
the wind can’t tell the     | difference.   
                                     
                        it scales   |    the heights of 
             scrapers|        |shoves us   around 
  the corner     of Burrard|     |and Hastings.

you sold million-dollar-       views
                        then took away the view.

you up-zone   our loneliness|            |
re-zone    our dis/ease |        | our relation/
ships    |our sky.

regiments of your high rises have started
their own          weather         channels.

clouds and smoke take turns|      |rubbing 
against     windows|      |we cannot open. 
 
        |          most creatures here are out of
|                  |                   |            place and 
       |                      |                    |out of sorts
inaudible to     |
themselves|               |           |
amidst the haze of your daily nonchalance. 

Bio

Daniela Elza’s latest poetry collections are the broken boat (2020) & slow erosions (2020)—a chapbook written in collaboration with poet Arlene Ang. Daniela is the recipient of the 2024 Colleen Thibaudeau Award for Outstanding Contribution to Poetry. Her latest poetry collection is forthcoming with McGill-Queen’s University Press in the Spring of 2025. [provided for the Arc Award of Awesomeness in April 2024]

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