songanddancegirl

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 ?

__

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…)

WHAN THAT APRILL

WHAN  THAT  APRILL  WITH HER      SHOURES  SOOTHE

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote

That’s as far as I went   with Geoffrey  Chaucer

who made me run   screaming from English Lit

Singlehandedly      Then diving into Sociology

where inequality seemed to run rampant    It was

there that I encountered the course in Statistics      that left me panting  on the floor

I have nothing more   to prove    and have   since then

become an epicurean   specializing in  fragile cheese  &   fleshy men

__

Hengwrt Manuscript   Canterbury Tales   Chaucer   1343-1400

Winter  2012

BACK AWAY

BACK AWAY FROM THE PRICKLY POET

I had the room to myself   mere seconds ago –

But now that    I    am here    people scurry  in

to figure out    why       I think it worthy

I did   before they arrived    But now I must

survive   their trying not to  stumble into me           

Like at the beach   when they close in on   you

All white skinned with red speckles creeping into cracks    and the scratching begins

__

Winter  2012

TEA & ORANGES

TEA & ORANGES THAT COME ALL THE WAY FROM    CHINA

My childhood bedroom turned   mauve    when Leonard

began serenading Suzanne  obsessively   into the wee hours

The room where my black standard poodle  chewed a hole in

my bed     Where I hid my stash   and purple prose   as Leonard

morphed into   Joni    who wafted out the window when the air       was thick

And fathers returned to   suburbia at night    only to watch their

arteries harden  and  their dreams evaporate   on the sizzling screens of    new tv’s

__

Winter  2012

FOXY LADY

FOXY  LADY

A grown woman just asked if she might

touch   the faux fox stole   eyes and all

around my neck     She begins by petting

it’s nose   then her hand wanders to my

cheek    which she strokes  as though she

cannot tell the difference   between fox        and me

I wonder if she is lonely   or just looking

for a redheaded Poet     to keep her warm     at night

__

Fall  2012

YOU’RE SO FINE

YOU’RE SO FINE  YOU BLOW MY MIND    HEY RICKY

There’s an odd  young man  wandering the

Gallery today    Long yellow hair    a too dark

tan    A flash of my grade school   boyfriend

who appeared in a dream   last night    A boy

Elvis     Quite mad by high school      He had

a  band   in Grade 5     A bouffant by  grade 10

And a bruise under his eye    far too often

__

Fall  2012

THE SKY IS FALLING

THE  SKY  IS  FALLING        THE  SKY  IS  FALLING

Looking at    the gap   that used to be  twin towers

Now a dour   black skyscrape  &  beside it a hole filled

with   air        Visions of    3000+   dying inside    fill up

the space around me    as   I ride     the    Liberty Ferry

on a grey     NYC     spring day

When darkness comes  And pain is all around   Like a bridge

over troubled water      I will lay me down

__

NYC   Spring   2012    Ode to    The   Twinless Tower      

Songanddancegirl     Simon & Garfunkel

FINAL SALE

FINAL SALE

I want to write a poem with edges

A cutting edge    poem    I want to

sign you up    I want your pledge:

You will walk the line   into this

poem    and not be distracted for

the 1:32 seconds it takes  to decide 

if I have made    a solid case

Ranted

Enchanted

Provoked

Evoked          your curiosity

Enough to have you fork over

$32.95 for 3,276 words  I have

purged   from  Middlearth   where

I have now spent more than 1/2

of my life         in your service

__

Fall  2012

O CANADA

O  CANADA

If you look at the G.G. winners  of any

given year  you will generally find:

the quotidian

meercats 

muskox

a moose  &  the sea

a pretty girl by a fence on a hill in Nova Scotia

And a safe place to spend the rest of your life*

__

*With the exception of   David Donnell   Settlements  1983

…Her hand moves like a dove with strawberries in its bill…

what will he hold in his hands above her head except roses,

and the invisible antlers of a stag?…

Fall  2012