“Tapestry, The Cloisters” [by Stephanie Bolster]

The unicorn made of stitches by hands by the thousands
of hours in Ghent or Bruges or possibly
years.
The unicorn held in a ring of pickets
his beard and buckled collar and blood
where they caught him.
All around the flowers with the names of
Venetian glass
the hellebore and unbidden berries. All
around a place
they went to day and night the candles
straining the eyes.
Skin softened by wool the sheep in the
field the wolf.
At this great distance the horn is the
pinnacle
as tall as the beast is rampant its tip a
single thread
squinted over an instant still flinching.

Poem of the Week, Canada’s
poet laureate’s website (http://www.parl.gc.ca/poet) on 28 May 2007 (Ottawa, Ontario).

Stephanie Bolster edited the 2008 edition of The Best Canadian Poetry in English. Her new book, A Page from the Wonders of Life on Earth, is due out from Brick Books in 2011.