Jessica Lee McMillan

Poetry, Essays, and Music

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Transformer Stone

Transformer Stone*JESSICA LEE MCMILLAN to the peninsula, in a pink sweatshirt and faded jeans. infused my body in sea mist. bus ticket from stolen change, now pulp sediment in pocket. on the inlet side of Stanley Park the man who cornered me probably named Rick, from Langley-asked why I was out so far alone at 15. old enough to shake him off along the seawall. I lost him around Prospect Point, among ancient cliffs of stratified rock. I rewrote the shame of not pleasing a predator with each step, washing my feet through deep time. of the valley, I was always rubbled. it felt like rescue when I saw the monolith round the bend. it emerged as a sign-post of survival. exceeding its host cliff, risen from lava, bathing in the open of the great clean. the standing stone, my monolith protected. upright and defiant, with head of transient trees, circling birds. stacked from the sea, I became unshakable. loyal as a cliff to the sky. I became the basaltic climb unpacking gravity to ossify my shape against the waves of lesser things. I welcomed the whole ocean. *After Skalsh Rock/Slhxí7lsh for "Standing Man" denoting the sea stack/monolith. The monolith is located along the Stanley Park seawall in Vancouver.
Transformer Stone by Jessica Lee McMillan Artwork by Caitlin Lapeña Published by League of Canadian Poets

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