winnie the pooh

translated by Neil Smith
A detail from an oil painting of white flowers
Photo by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa  / Unsplash.com

i’m winnie the pooh
with brown hair
winnie the pooh who spits up blood
on his tractor in the park
and who mows the lawn
and who leaves big clumps of grass everywhere
and who does a pretty shoddy job
and who’s tired
dead tired
winnie the pooh who’s gotten up at six a.m.
the past two days and who doesn’t understand
how he manages to work or breathe
or open doors
because that’s how it is
i’m winnie the pooh
with brown hair
i don’t have fingers anymore
i have two fists
two fists that are quite useless
i don’t get into fights
i’ve never been in a fight
i’d lose for sure
i’m not built like brad pitt
and sometimes it’s rainy and sometimes it’s sunny
and life goes on
and the sun is built like brad pitt
i’m on the tractor
i go around in circles
the grass is short
the grass is really short
and my lungs are short too
and the sky and the sun
and my new shoes are short
and the white flowers
and i drive over them again and again
the little white flowers in the park
which i can’t seem to trim
because they’re too small
because they’re too white
and i’m white and small too
and that’s how it is
i no longer have time to write
i have a busy schedule
i eat tortellini
i spit up blood
i take my time to live
in the biggest white flowers

Translation from the French


Jean-Christophe Réhel has published four poetry collections for adults and three collections for children. He has two novels: Tatouine, which is now being made into a feature film, and All Kidding Aside, translated by Neil Smith. Réhel has won Canadian literary awards for his writing and also earned a prize at the Cannes Film Festival for a television show he scripts.


Neil Smith, the winner of multiple Canadian literary prizes, has three works of fiction with Random House Canada. His work has been translated into nine languages.