Response By
Emma Donoghue
Jack Chambers Mums, 1968-1971
oil on canvas Purchased with funds provided by the Volunteer Committee and other generous donors, 1993Response
What troubles me is the missing handle,
drawer pull, dresser pull, centre drop pull,
whatever you’d call it. (As you see I googled it
but there’s no agreement.) To be this neat
in small things – eight mums, symmetrical sprays
of leaves, pen and pad, gleaming coin purse, ashtray,
rug unrucked, all surfaces straight and dusted…
I need to know who’d leave a broken handle unrestored.
What made that one out of six
fall, and who’s to fix it?
Emma Donoghue is an Irish-Canadian novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and literary historian, and holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. She has lived in London, Ontario for more than two decades. Emma has won and been shortlisted for countless awards across her career, both within Canada and internationally. She adapted her 2010 novel Room into an award-winning film in 2015.