Reminders
Translated by Willow Loveday Little from Jean-Guy Forget
my girlfriend and our friends
blossom into a choir of laughter
when I dare admit
I have no fucking idea
what a caper is
*
I discover ducharme and kundera
in cégep before being told
these are good reads for high-schoolers
in the future I’ll stay silent
on the subject of catching up
*
my best friend says that
my references aren’t well-researched enough
not enough for a discussion on class war
*
someone compares herself to me
our mothers our fathers our families
the void behind their gifts
how materialistic the culture
in disagreement I grit my teeth
we’ll likely never share the luxury
of being bored
by shallow bonds
*
all I’m missing
is some good therapy
to nip the problem in the bud
unbind my psyche across several months
years even but put a finger on
what’s bruised until the answer
traces itself
the evening proceeds
the people have fun get drunk and I don’t know
where or how to find the money
so I can afford to move on
The original poem in French, “Rappels,” appeared in Pleure pas, Cadillac published by Del Busso.
ABOUT THE CREATOrs
Photo Credit: Gustavo Salinas
Photo Credit: Gustavo Salinas
Willow Loveday Little’s work has appeared in places like The Dalhousie Review, yolk literary, Metatron, HA&L, The League of Canadian Poets chapbook series, Vallum, and On Spec. She published her debut poetry collection, (Vice) Viscera, with Cactus Press in 2022 and joined the team as an editor in 2024. Willow lives in Montreal.
Instagram: @willowloveday
Jean-Guy Forget was born in Montreal in 1994. He is the author of the novel After (Hamac, 2018) and the poetry collection Pleure pas, Cadillac (Del Busso, 2019), and the coauthor of Déménager au ciel. His work also appears in the anthologies Bad Boys (2019) and Pauvreté (2021), both by Éditions Triptyque.
Instagram:@jan.gui