Hayley Bernier (she/her) is a queer Canadian writer, who at the moment is favouring and focusing on poetry, especially in relation to her family history. She completed her MSc in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh in 2020, the same year she received a special mention of the Grierson Verse Prize. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in From Arthur’s Seat: Volume 5, Spoken Word Scratch Night, The Pittsburgher, and more. You can read her sporadic posts and see some cool photos she’s taken if you follow her on Instagram.
Follow Hayley on Instagram @burnyayhayley
Read more of Hayley Bernier’s work
wanting what you can’t have (Kissing Dynamite Poetry)
Family Snapshot, 1998, Lost in Storage (The Pittsburgher)
Two Accounts of Witnessed Animal Murder (Spoken Word Scratch Night Zine Vol.2)
Midnight on a Tuesday (The Pittsburgher)
Within the first two months of the MSc, my uncle died. He and the rest of my family were in Quebec, Canada, where I am from, so it was a very particular kind of grief, to be away from everyone. This is one of the many pieces written in his honour, written in the pantoum form.
The Old Hipster of St-Henri
He was finally going home
Just like he always planned
Friends in vinyl, record player in chrome—
He held a problem in his hand
Just like he always planned
To return to rural oasis
He held a problem in his hand
Pension declined: a technicality crisis
To return to rural oasis
Laden with vincible lungs and dark liver
Pension declined: a technicality crisis
Rent overdue, bills to pay, he could only quiver
Laden with vincible lungs and dark liver
Back to the hospital bed he must go
Rent overdue, bills to pay, he could only quiver
In the very groans of him he saw life unfold— I know
Back to the hospital bed he must go
Ample hands rush to hold his
In the very groans of him he saw life unfold— I know
He begged for life in all cases
Ample hands rush to hold his
Take his pulse, temperature, blood
He begged for life in all cases
Reluctant to admit the heart’s plagued thud
Take his pulse, temperature, blood
His apartment sits patient and hollow
Reluctant to admit the heart’s plagued thud
Black dresses and shoes soon to follow
His apartment sits patient and hollow
We packed it— felt the emptiness resound
Black dresses and shoes soon to follow
Ash, in a box, in the ground.
We packed it— felt the emptiness resound
Friends in vinyl, record player in chrome—
Ash, in a box, in the ground,
He was finally going home.
