65° - 01.07.1968, Qupperneq 19

POEMS
Gerald Rutherford
Gerald Rutherford
builder of snow tunnels
constructor of two storey forts
from scrap lumber
shooter of home made arrows
of willow
failer of school
swearer of teachers
joiner of navies
how could you
of the porch full
of comic books
(wooden apple crates
filled to capacity)
disappear
so easily
into life
the successful Christian
in constant prayer
she still finds time to lend
at ten percent
what others spend
Sunday thoughts
when our minister
bred on dry prairies
preached his sermon
confirming the immediate separation
of the body and soul at death
i wondered if
he had seen
fillets fresh-taken
from flopping fish
turn themselves in agony
upon a hissing pan
Elegy for Fjola Sveinson
Fjola Sveinson
carelessly dying
on the front room couch
with the T.Y. and the lights on
left cornflakes unfinished
coffee staining a cup
half a bottle of beer
going flat in the refrigerator
and so many things
unsaid
A Canadian-Icelander, W.D. Valgardsson is cur-
rently engaged as rhetoric instructor in the
Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa,
U.S.A. His poems have appeared in The Fiddle-
head, Alphabet, and Canadian Forum.
65 DEGREES
17