Encrypted

In September 2020, Arleen Paré ’ s almost twenty-year old grandson moved into the basement of her home to attend courses nearby. After suffering a bout of severe anxiety and depression, he was forced to drop out of his second-year computer science program after one month. In an effort to quell her own feelings of helplessness and growing anxiety about the situation, Paré turned to poetry. In the words of Jane Munro, Paré assessed the age of anxiety with “ anguished clarity” — social media, climate crisis, pandemic, addiction, inflation, depression. Both a tender tribute to a beloved grandson and an elegy for coming of age in our modern, online society, Encrypted is an honest and illuminating narrative of a life arrested and a home haunted by grief. Eventually, her grandson was able to return, little by little, to his studies. Paré ’ s grandson still lives with her today.