Corinne Larochelle

Born in Three-Rivers, Quebec, Corinne Larochelle haspublished six books of poetry and a first novel, Le parfumde Janis(2015). She works and lives in Montreal.

The translator, Antonio D’Alfonso, is a writer andfilmmaker who lives in Montreal and Toronto.


from Butterfly Hunting

Predator of secrets
I detect the fragile world
bursting at its seams.

Baptism day
in Washington Square Park
for my brand new Pentax.

A young Puerto Rican stares at me,
feet on enemy line.

The gap between us tapers
while a star sparkles
on our foreheads.

I become a double iris
firm on solid ground
at the corner of Fifty-Seventh Street
and Fifth Avenue.

I am snatched rapidly
and pulled outside of myself
by the lives of strangers.

I fill the frame
with his young body,
and gulp down a couple
of soluble tablets.

Getting closer
to the boy with a beret,
I will munch on the line
of his open mouth.

I will fasten his eyes
to the strap of surprise.

The camera is cruel:
a monster in a box
that grabs hold of you.

Tirelessly following
the glitter of motion
the weird press releases
pinned outside train stations
on car-free streets.

As long as the universe is abuzz
I can choose the proper angle
and catch stars
shooting out of people’s eyes.

Thrown out of paradise at a young age, she begins to shoot photographs. She jots down the addresses of funeral homes, and classifies the settlings by age and sex. An area in Eden where fruits are scattered over tablecloths and the keys she will rattle striding into her labyrinth. Depending on which day it is, and with more or less inventiveness. Depending on the organ as well, her beating heart. She possesses a legitimate ambition: soliciting the body.

From Woman With Camera
by Corinne Larochelle
© 2011 Corinne Larochelle and Les Éditions du Noroît
Translation © 2018 Antonio D'Alfonso
Published by Ekstasis Editions