Comply with the law, or don’t. It’s not the end of the world.
Poetry | Farah Ghafoor | Issue 46
Tomorrow
There is still time, so approve the project. Comply with the law, or don’t. It’s not the end of the world. Find a way to minimize expenses. Cut those jobs, they’ll be fine. The future is a tightrope. Lengthen it with cash. Lengthen it with flights overseas, the air is clear enough. The pilot will be fine. The kids will be fine. Look them in the eye. Try again. That’s it. Smile. Collect donations from customers. Tell them they are right, that they are, in fact, tax-deductible. Tell the customer they have rights, then hire a private army. Where can they run? They’ll be fine if they don’t breach any policies, remember that they’re on camera, and keep their receipts ready for review. If they spend less on coffee, generate another stream of passive income, and buy headphones that will change their life. They’ll be fine with a musical view of their lawns. Certain the neighbours of the houses they will one day own will be fine. Loan them wood and tools and rope anyway with a payment plan and the lowest interest around. Offer them a response personalized with their name, birthday, and social insurance number. Say: It’s going to be okay, okay? It will be okay, so close your eyes. Everything will be fine. Tuck them in and shut off the lights. Good night, sweet dreams, we will see you tomorrow.
Excerpted from Shadow Price by Farah Ghafoor ©2025 Farah Ghafoor. Published by House of Anansi Press www.houseofanansi.com
Farah Ghafoor is an award-winning poet living on the traditional territory of the Anishnabeg, the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. Her work was awarded the E.J. Pratt Medal and Prize in Poetry, longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize, is taught in university courses, and published in The Walrus, the Fiddlehead, Room, and elsewhere. Raised in New Brunswick and southern Ontario, Ghafoor now works in Tkaronto (Toronto) as a financial analyst.
Shadow Price: Poems by Farah Ghafoor House of Anansi Press, 2025
Borrowing its title from a finance term—“the estimated price of a good or service for which no market price exists”—Shadow Price is a stunning debut that examines the idea of value in a world that burns under our capitalist lens.
What gives life value? How do we serve existing societal structures that determine its cost? Employing both surreal and documentary imagery, Farah Ghafoor's arresting collection articulates how narrative is used to revise the past and manipulate the future, ultimately forming our present-day climate crisis. Interrogating personal complicity, generational implications, and the shock of our collective disregard for a world that sustains every living thing, Shadow Price captures the complexities of living and writing as a young poet born in the year that “climate change denial” first appeared in print. Mourning the loss of Earth’s biodiversity, from insects to mammoths to trees, these introspective poems invite us to consider the risks and rewards of loving what may vanish in our lifetime.
Shadow Price charges readers to contemplate their power and purpose in the world today, recognizing that there is hope even in the belly of the beast.
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