Right
here in the middle of the street,
the
passenger door slamming shut on his gun hand
as
the car sped away.
Right
here on the white solid line,
blood
pooling around the base of his skull.
Here,
years ago, beneath the new interchange,
waiting
at the parkway’s one red light.
With
a pistol brought in by diplomatic bag,
rushed
out of the country hours later.
Right
here face down in the November slush.
Here
on the strip while leaving a bistro.
In
a scuffle at this tavern door.
In
a downtown crosswalk with a crossbow.
With
a nine-inch blade across the bar.
The
city remembers its private scars.
For
others there’s a plaque – one on the mall
where
an MP took a bullet in the head.
Another
at the jail where someone swung for it.
A
stone laid for workers killed on the job.
Statues
for those in uniform.
Monuments
uncounted, all to the dead.
Heroes’
highways, walks of fame, listed houses
reassure
that some are kept in mind.
Even
poets have their garden and their path,
echoes
nearly lost in corridors of the dead.
Right
here, right now, we persist, we speak.
While
we can, we have our day.
And
in a lab beside the rushing river
someone’s
plotting to kill you, death.
We’ve
seen the impossible happen before.
Riposte,
by Colin Morton
produced in part as a handout
during the sixth Arc Poetry Walk, curated and
hosted by rob mclennan, walking around the Byward
Market, December 8, 2018
above/ground
press broadside #346
Twice
winner of the Archibald Lampman Award for poetry, Ottawa poet Colin Morton has published more than
ten books, ranging from visual and sound poetry (Printed Matter; Two Decades) to historical narratives (The Merzbook: Kurt Schwitters Poems; The
Hundred Cuts: Sitting Bull and the Major). His other work includes a novel,
an animated film, and many reviews and essays. He has collaborated with poets,
artists, and musicians in the poetry performance group First Draft and with
film-maker Ed Ackerman in the award-winning animated poetry film Primiti Too Taa. www.colinmorton.net
No comments:
Post a Comment