songanddancegirl

THERE IS NO PAIN

THERE  IS  NO  PAIN     YOU ARE  RECEDING

Once I saw a red haired boy   laughing manically

on his lawn   I knew he was one of the  touched

A  5 yr. old  holyfool not yet hooked in     to the

space&time continuum    Not quite human   but

soon        too soon

Last night on CNN a man crying on his lawn

He’d had a visitation     6  five year olds sitting

neatly   like scouts    You could tell he believed

them angels   The blood of their young teacher

splashed on shirts & jeans

What land will they inhabit now   except the  inbetween –

Hello. Is anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me?

I can ease your pain.

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In  Memoriam    The Newtown  26    +2

Winter  2012

Aprill Atkins Cameron   Roger Waters    David Gilmour

COMFORTABLY NUMB

I  HAVE  BECOME     COMFORTABLY NUMB

There are 18  some odd  days left in the year

Everyone made a big deal  out of yesterday

It was  12. 12. 12.      People rushed to get

married   thinking all the 2’s   mystically

represented a good day for  coupling

They all looked pretty  manic  to me   One

poor bride being dragged through       Nathan Phillips Square

by her hulking intended    Looked like

she wanted to be   anywhere   but there

Maybe he’ll calm down sometime  soon   or perhaps Pfizer will

invent a pill for      overzealous grooms

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*32% of  newlyweds resort to pharmaceuticals within the 1st

20 days of marriage

Winter   13. 12. 12.      Songanddancegirl        Pink Floyd

COME POET

COME POET   SHUT UP

I’m reading the poets   charting their moments:

the rain   a bull    a mother who hanged herself

What are we getting at   laying it   so bare?

Bleeding the mystery  so it oozes onto the page

and stains the mundane   that runs rampant           out there

I promise to levitate you out of your chair   with

pithy quotes  &  pissy complaints   about:   

Wasps leaving without saying goodbye  &  Jews saying goodbye   without leaving

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Songanddancegirl      Bruck       O’Meara      Ginsberg

Winter  2012  

SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR

HEY  U.N.  SPECIAL  RAPPORTEUR    ON  TORTURE

Did you know that right here in Toronto    there are

hundreds of children who fall    within your purview?

Why not do something for them  esteemed ladies and

gentlemen?   One girl I know was bound with the same

wire as her mother    stored under the bed by the  new Dad

Likely the adults will need rescuing   too      Can I get a witness?

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Winter  2012

MONKEY RANCH

MONKEY  RANCH

We had   9 dogs  1 rabbit   fish  turtles

&  a squirrel   until a louse was found

on baby brother’s head    Later Rocky

fell off the balcony   Daddy  said he was

at the zoo   I believed him fervently as a

child is apt  to do

Especially when parents still wear           the cloak of mystery

Wow   they can run  &  sit on the floor

& chase you around the table when you

dis  their stinkin food

He wont eat anything   if you say you won’t eat it too

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..We starved our monkeys. It took them a whole year to die off..

In those days, children did as they were told..  

 Julie Bruck    GG  winner 2012   for Poetry

Winter  2012

THE HERE AND NOW

THE  HERE  AND  NOW  IS     HIGHLY  OVERRATED

There is a cobweb hanging from the   Signy Eaton

fountain   usually a gush of water over cherub who

lives there    The scent of decay  everywhere   as ochre

piles freeze  in the park     A woman walking by sings:

Get  me  out  of  here    in a screechy soprano

As I contemplate waiting for the right moment to begin waiting for Spring!

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Winter  2012

OUR ENDLESS

OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS

Giant peregrine  circles above my corner

of city     Some might think him a glider

but I   know better    Grew up with wild

men  and   tame birds    forthemostpart

Those were   simpler times?

I just found out that an  old friend’s

husband is confined   to a chair    I once

said  experimentally    that nothing can

prepare us for this stage of life     For this

I received  a blank stare

My compatriot was busy being a   good wife

to a man leading a   double life      I tend to

agree with Sinead:        I don’t know what I want from this world

Except for my friends to stop getting sick

&  for my husband to hold my hand   like

he’s holding hers     over there

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Songanddancegirl     Sinead  O’ Connor     Iron & Wine

Winter  2012

GHOST RANCH

GHOST  RANCH

Finally shag carpet  &  a corduroy  sectional

Burned the stained old blue    wall to wall

where poodle threw  up  daily     How many 

cookies did you give him?   Soon to be doctor

cousin asked   & counted 26 as the last   child

coughed up an answer    Living room where

Kennedy  was  shot   and Nixon resigned           The stereo played the Blues

And a white ghost frequented the balcony

where 13 puppies lay    steam rising from

hot bodies   one freezing winter day    A girl

struggling with afterbirth    The ghost now         backing away

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Winter  2012

JERRY

JERRY                                     CAN  YOU  HEAR  ME?

I

You punched me hard in my stomach

when i was eight    You were big & brawny

You looked like Jack Nicholson in The Shining

Did i attract you or did you attract me   to your fist –

My father also brawny   knocked on your door

You lived a block away on his mother’s very street

Later you came pounding  on our  door    Your own

poor mother   as yet unbloodied    had you in tow –

I locked myself in the bathroom    Wish i had stayed there

II

Twenty years had come and gone

I walked crisply toward the elevator

of the asylum   at 999 Queen St. W.

Were they afraid of the inversion

when they changed the address?

Would 666 reek too much of his dark lord

the one who beckoned you to matricide?

The door opened &  there you stood in a natty

bathrobe    I froze  and prayed      hard

You were not brawny & you did not punch me

III

Hey Jerry!

We’re neighbours again

From my Juliette balcony I can see

the wall of the asylum –

Jerry can you hear me?

Are you still alive in there?

Come pick me up  &  we’ll  cruise around       in your orange Javelin

__

Winter  2008

OUT OF THE MOUTHS

OUT  OF  THE  MOUTHS       OF  BABES

Blood filled her mouth   before breakfast

yesterday    I tell her that in Canada  no one

is allowed to  hurt her   leave bruises   make

her bleed    But you have wars?    This logic

is exceedingly logical    and  should stop all

further attempts to reassure her that she now

resides  among a   peaceloving   tribe    

I take another  weak stab –

Well at least they don’t shout & hit you at school

There’s shouting   all the time   and  all the kids          hit

You don’t know much about your country   now do you    Ms. Child Therapist ?

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The issue before the Supreme Court of Canada was whether s.43 of the Criminal Code of Canada is unconstitutional. Section 43 provides that a parent, teacher or person acting in the place of a parent is justified in using force to correct a child that is under his or her care provided that the force used is reasonable in all of the circumstances.

Decision

The Supreme Court of Canada decided that section 43 of the Criminal Code is constitutional; it found that section 43 does not violate a child’s rights to security of the person and equality, and is not cruel and unusual punishment. More specifically, the Supreme Court held that section 43 ensures that the criminal law applies to any use of force that harms a child, but does not apply where the use of force is part of a genuine effort to educate the child, poses no reasonable risk of harm that is more than transitory and trifling, and is reasonable under the circumstances.

Winter  2012      (…hoping this decision is as transitory  as it is trifling…)