salt, citrus, and sweat

i want to go to that place


that place where a permanent citrus sweat

permeates the air


a scene that is forever vignetted by olive trees

and grape groves

and bikes with baskets

and my lust and longing to live in this june, july, and august—indefinitely


take me to that place

where my skin peels alongside the iron chairs


i want to sit somewhere you can feel the sun

even in the shade


let me smell the nearby sea

and sip on coca-cola

with lemon

the way it’s meant to be


i want my body—sticky

i want my hair shampooed—with salt  


i need this place

so that i can pretend like all of my failures

aren’t my own fault 

KIRSTY MACLELLAN’S poetry expands fragmentary thoughts into bite-sized art by using questions as a tool for projecting her ideas. She writes in an abstract and contemporary style that lacks structure (but of course, that is the point!). Her work aims to uncover the connections between the human condition and the divine. 

Land Acknowledgement

We would like to begin by acknowledging the Indigenous Peoples of all the lands that we are on today. While we meet today on a virtual platform, we would like to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of the lands, on which we each call home. We do this to reaffirm our commitment and responsibility in improving relationships between nations and to improve our own understanding of local Indigenous peoples and their cultures. 

York University’s land acknowledgement may not represent the territory that you are currently on, and we would ask that if this is the case, you take responsibility to acknowledge the traditional territory that you are on and its current treaty holders. 

York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat. It is now home to many First Nation, Inuit and Métis communities. 

We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.

From coast to coast to coast, we acknowledge the ancestral and unceded territory of all the Inuit, Métis, and First Nations people that call this land home. Please join us in a moment of reflection to acknowledge the effect of residential schools and colonialism on Indigenous families and communities and to consider how it is our collective responsibility to recognize colonial and arrivant histories and present-day implications in order to honour, protect, and sustain this land. 

In recognizing that these spaces occupy colonized First Nations territories and out of respect for the rights of the Indigenous people, please look for, in your own way, to engage in a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration.