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[ 7] King and John Streets (For Isabella Valancy Crawford) [ 8] Colette [ 9] Chinatown I [10] Toronto [12] The Draper's Cloth [13] Poet's Are Magic Beings [14] Casha [15] The Jolly Tupper [16] Vertigo [19] Bedroom Glass [21] Ahoy [23] The Poetry Pond [24] What Became of the Sixties? [25] Sixties Hangover [26] Dash Into Realism: Escape Pad From The Sixties [27] What Colour Is Love? [28] Chain Letter [29] Slaughterhouse [30] Lavender [32] The Necklace Garden [33] Pillage [34] Desire [35] Preening [36] Chance Upon [37] Leaf Doctor [38] Tussaud's [39] Vulcans [40] Dry Guillotine [41] Mangroves [42] Pondicherry [43] The Clearing That Is The Trees [44] Humboldt's Current [45] The Gingham Dream Utterance [46] Juniper Trees [47] Distemper [48] Night Winds [49] Amherst Island [50] Ancient of Days [51] Constantly Deliberation [52] The Drunken Boat |
KING AND JOHN STREETS
(FOR ISABELLA VACANCY CRAWFORD)
When the shadows are hungry
animals on walls
and theatre goers are
parliamentarians engaged
in a repast or feast
of words.
the lone house stands
as a stone shard or sliver
about to disengage itself
from the eye.
For behind boulders of tenement
walls and vines creeping
to match the red brick of
sumac and the parrot bill of fire escape stairs,
I watch the building
cylindrical in the darkness
crouching thin air
as if an awkward child
were about to make strange
for the dozenth time.
There are few things to duplicate
plaster held by the bite of wind,
open poverty like lesions
refusing to move.
neglect that festers
to pop the endless seams
of the mind like burning
radiator caps,
scalding water to lighten
the lanced up eyes of vermin who
lather these swollen rooms.
[7]
COLETTE
The waitress mainlines
the cup under the saucer
balancing it on the
waistband of her arm
much as a junkie
might tie a tourniquet.
Wiping the glass edge
of the table
clear of croissant crumbs
& watching the barely dry
reflection of her own
image going thru the emotions.
the California chic
pothouse & gardenia
bloom effect of
her work is enough
to leave a dirty smear.
[8]