GHOSTS OF GRAND BRUIT
- Inspired by Joe Norris’, Ghost Fishing Village, 1990
The young writer descends, ferry-
wobbled, down the Grand Bruit dock.
There is talk at the general store,
near the generator keeping the lights on,
of forced resettlement. The only fish here
are the ghosts of great cod schools past.
Services to maintain aging community
stalwarts not worth the administrative cost.
God forbid another helicopter required
to airlift grandpa to the nearest hospital.
Not to mention fuel to keep the heat on.
What’s left—the elderly, and ghosts.
Ghost public schoolers listen
to a ghost teacher. Ghost fish gutters
fillet in abandoned stilt shacks.
Ghost fishermen ready their dories
while ghost lighthouse keeper wearily
watches formerly fertile foggy bay
WE KNOW HOW TO TALK ABOUT FAILURE
We know how to talk about
failure. Easier to self-efface
than be bold enough to claim
purposeful competence.
Let us tell you how our
poems no longer stand up.
How we flubbed the
transitions in those songs,
forgot third line in fourth scene,
used unintended brush with an
inadequate shade. Easier than,
I did it with intention and skill
Jordan Trethewey lives in Nashwaaksis, New Brunswick, Canada, with his wife, son, and daughter. He was the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Fredericton Region Museum (2025), and a City of Fredericton Poet Laureate emeritus (2021-2024). Jordan’s writing appears in journals, such as; Maclean’s, Arc Poetry Magazine, and Spillwords; and on the right shoulder blade of a fan. He is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, a writer-in residence at Blood + Honey magazine, and an editor at Open Arts Forum. Some of his work is also translated in Vietnamese, Farsi, and French. His other poetry collections include: “Bathroom Stall Stanzas,” (2012); “Wishing on Satellites, (2016); “Spirits for Sale,” (2019); “Unexpected Mergers,” (2021); “These Are the People in Your Neighbourhood,” (2023); and “SyncWorld,” (2025). To read more of Jordan’s work, please visit: https://jordantretheweywriter.wordpress.com.