Memory and Rage

Justin – time moves. Even
in Montreal.

Somalian immigrants settle
on the rising Canadian shield.

There’s a traffic jam
on the Highway of Heroes.

Ducks are dead in oil sand effluence.
Vancouver/Toronto drown in drug wars.

And you want to honour volunteers.
Perhaps they’re watching

an aging parent die neglected
in a hospital bed at the end

of an unswept hallway. Perhaps
they’re driving downtown

in a GM product. Perhaps they’re
shopping on line for sex dreams

or leaving for Cuba in March.
Perhaps they’re unemployed

and waiting at a food bank.
Selling a house they’ve been in

since their children were born.
Perhaps they’re learning the lyrics

to a new protest song – watch us
watch us watch us watch us.