1.
This unfiltered racket, convoy ; an occupation
surpassing Parliament Hill,
harassing
residents, businesses
,
and Centretown’s patience. An exhaustion,
granulated.
Go home, truckers.
Ground up
,
powdered. Your gods constructed purely
to falter. Sit, set loose, this February chill.
2.
Abandon as precise a map
as
one might offer. Where is food, gas, lodging? Unmasked, demand
;
they pitch and swagger. Locals mention all
night horns,
assaults , an apartment lobby set on fire,
as rocks strike ambulances ; of protestors
defecating
on residential doorsteps, snowbanks. A steady stream of urine
on
the tomb
of the unknown soldier. A confusion
of
Confederate flags. If this is freedom :
I think
that
word means something
different
than you think it means.
3.
Legislative
layers, flay: It’s just a
city, darling. Blockades
matter,
anti-matter. Tropes
of
a land, locked , frozen. Overwhelmed. Authorities
pause,
their tongues
in
constant motion. Illusion, impulse. An insurrection
of
this long, blue berth. Otherwise ubiquitous bylaw officers,
mysteriously absent.
4.
A social contract. The needs of the many, or
the few. The one. Voices to a page, caboodle. How
to
tame such temper. Rage, rage. Everyone agrees, except
for
how to implement. They storm, we fury,
bureaucracy, impedes. If logic outweighs any capital.
5.
What part of the heart is this?
Render, unto Caesar. Pandemic fuels, the sense to follow
health
advice, regulation. Insulated, from such grace. It fails me.
The
ability to parse out
information: daily emails
citing all my doctor isn’t telling me. Rage,
we rage. Continue.
This
hack bears certain patterns. A panorama
of
sirens , shouting, air horns. The arrangement ,
all.
6.
The kids of Instagram turn up their nose.
A hand might follow : strata. Unpeopled
corners of the imagination. Do you know
where
your children are? That disenfranchised
distant
family? Desensitized, and what else
we’ve been missing. The limits of this field. Cling
to the strictures of a sore throat, cough. We walkabout. All hope,
as you enter.
Thank you, Rob! Been looking for an Ottawa poet to express themselves re this. Take good care.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this, Rob.
ReplyDeleteWishing you peace and safety!
Rob, you have covered the waterfront with this one. The whole thing was a disrespectful nightmare. The result of some Evangelical Christians, white supremacists and mostly victims of misinformation. I salute you.
ReplyDelete