Two earlier iterations of the Abigail sonnets also appeared in Canadian Literature 233 (summer 2017) with thanks to Stephen Collis and Catriona Strang.
An earlier version of the poem “Bramah Remembers a Lullaby” appeared on a greeting card commissioned by the Surrey Art Gallery.
Thanks to Nightwood Editions and Silas White for editing and publishing this work and for sharing in the vision of innovative poetry and beautifully made books.
Love and gratitude to my husband: he took the time, in a pandemic, to read all of this epic fantasy.
Gratitude to the independent publishers and literary journals of Canada for their continued support of long-form poetry.
Dedication
———for all the lives lived in my families, the Saklikars and the Patels, past, present and future, including my grandma, Miriam Patel, who I never met. And my grandma, Godavari Saklikar, who visited me when I was a little girl in Saskatchewan. Attar of roses!
———to the memory of my father teaching me Mother Goose nursery rhymes.
———to the memory of my mother singing Gujarati in the basement up at the home house.
———to my sister, Fare Forward, Voyagers!
Bramah and the Beggar Boy Page 19