Wake

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Melanie Cameron is a southwestern Ontario girl turned promising Manitoba
writer, an assessment confirmed by the fact that she was shortlisted
three times for provincial awards given to new authors. Unlike other
poets, Cameron titles each section of her book, but not its individual
verses. Fortunately, the poems’ first lines become substitute titles;
each one begins with a large bold letter, in a different font, in order
to prevent confusion.

Cameron observes her Winnipeg hometown with an engaged imagination.
This is evident in “So / many / forgotten / stones,” which recounts
the slaughter of “Two sisters, carried / across a boulevard, cold twin
/ stretchers. Faces / already / erased beneath / sheets.” Both were
murdered because emergency services was unable to prevent one woman’s
estranged husband from attacking. Cameron’s dry commentary brings to
mind a television news report.

Readers who prefer ancient mythology to current events might appreciate
references to “Persephone, Queen of the Dead.” They might ask why
she mentions “the Colonel” and wonder what Elvis Presley’s manager
or a deceased American fried chicken magnate has to do with a classical
tale.

“All her life / they’ll mark” subtly tracks the tale of an abused
girl who becomes a raped virgin. If Canadian literature is perpetually
on patrol for losers, then this poet has joined its Special Victims
Unit.

Cameron remains a contender, at least until the critics assess the
competition.