“The Humidity in the Air” by John Brady McDonald
The Humidity in the Air
the humidity in the air after a summer rain makes the paper
feel damp to the touch
it starts to curl, even before
I set it into the typewriter
And begin to roll it around the platen
Did you know that was what that part of a typewriter is called?
I didn’t
I had to look it up
I stare out of an open window as I write this
The summer wind blowing the poplar and caragana leaves
While a crow yells into the sky, drowning out the songbirds
There is still the smell of summer rain in the wind
And the sky is grey between the leaves of my window
As the paper advances through this machine
It begins to curl the other way, now
“The Humidity in the Air”, excerpted from What Shade of Brown. © 2025 by John Brady McDonald. Reprinted by permission of Radiant Press.
What Shade of Brown. © 2025 by John Brady McDonald. Published by Radiant Press.
More about What Shade of Brown:
Passionate poetry and prose exploring the experience of an Indigenous person who feels like a stranger in a strange land, not quite accepted because of his light skin but also undermined by a settler-colonial society. Lyrical and heartfelt, bewildered and shaken, the poet struggles to find a connection to his family and lost culture.
More about John Brady McDonald:
John Brady McDonald is a Nêhiyawak-Métis writer, artist, historian, musician, playwright, actor and activist born and raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He is from the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and the Mistawasis Nêhiyawak. He is the author of several books, and his written works have been published and presented around the globe. Kitotam, a poetry collection, was published by Radiant Press in 2021, and Carrying It Forward, a book of essays, was published in 2022 and won the Saskatchewan Book Award for Non-fiction and the Indigenous Peoples’ Writing Award. He is also an acclaimed public speaker, who has presented in venues across the globe, such as the Ânskohk Aboriginal Literature Festival, the Black Hills Seminars on Reclaiming Youth, the Appalachian Mountain Seminars, the Edmonton and Fort McMurray Literary Festival, the Eden Mills Writers’ Festival and the Ottawa International Writers Festival. A noted polymath, John lives in Northern Saskatchewan.