Any excuse to be on the plains: Quebec City Summer 2000

Inspiration: Who wouldn't be inspired to climb the cliffs


A good excuse to be on the plains (21/07/00)
Cruising the cliffs below the citadel and wondering what it was like to be on patrol above …

1 800 HO BRITS
or *69 on your cell
if you see any Anglos
scaling the walls
below the plains of Abraham

once they have
conquered
you’ll get some real
technology
to use against the Americans

just don’t go outside
the citadel walls
without a good excuse


Local Talent
Its kinda noisy in the backyard of our lovely Quebec city summer condo …

Buzzing saws
B-rated babies
The man who cuts his lawn
With a power trimmer

They come to play
Throughout the day.
They sing along
At evensong.

They laugh at me
From every tree.
They slip away
When I must stay.


Trussed Bridge

Don’t get too bogged down with
?Why they want to know.

Trust their ethics.

Trust the power of experience
To shape a variety
Of opinions.

Take the givens
Explore the unthinkables
Build the bridge
Between the two.


?Gotta vision
margaret received an email from a federal government communications officer indicating that the appropriate officials were "gonna" be at an upcoming meeting. That set off a little debate about the legitimate use of language.

We feed the fish
Every nite.

We sweep the catbarf
Outta site.

We gotta vision
Of a well sat house.

We’re gonna discourage
Your average mouse.


Leftover destiny (23/07/08)
Two teenage girls are a unique phenomena to which I am somewhat unaccustomed …

My daughter and her friend
Each have their own
14 year old personality –
which shines alone –
but when they are together
there’s less to distinguish.

They like totally
know all the words.
Its cool to help out the radio
But not to say "bonjour"
Without excessive drama.

However at dinner time
They will sit down -
Without the consensus laughter -
And wonder over seconds
?what’s inside another’s head

long after I retire
they’re reviving leftovers
to keep the nite young
and destiny in their
own hands


No magnostic anomie
Imagine the positive side of things I don’t like about margaret – then portray her that way …

It’s hard for her
To use the "I".
She’s humble
In her speech.

To "you", the "people"
She sends her invite
To wonder
Or to teach.

And "no" is not
Her way of staying
Safe within
Our reach.


Still patient
The mother of the woman whose condo we are renting had a fall and has been moved to a rehab centre …

She peers out
Past one glass eye
At her daughter’s tenants
Come to bring her
Some clothes.

She thanks them
With patience
Learned as a teenager
In some new hampshire
Sweatshop

She marvels between
French and English
At this so many years later
nursing home comfort

She reveals quietly
that the hospital food
was better
but the view here
is right across the St Lawrence.


No spaghetti with the tigers
My daughter left me with a nice farewell as she boarded the train to Toronto …

I miss your spaghetti
After a few days without any -
And of course I miss you.

Let’s jump in the car
To hunt junk food afar -
And a tiger or two.

When we get home
You’ll take off alone -
And I’ll miss you anew.


Caught with oxygen (25/07/00)
Sister Linda again keeps me close with family tales …

This time its living
You’re reporting on.
Dad’s sister looking way back –
"I can’t believe they put those
ribbons in my hair. Heh –
I can’t believe
they called me Elsie."

She had your eye
And ear –
"I’m sitting as still as I can" –
and daughter Marilyn’s familiar jabs.

A Stratford weekend.
You felt the importance
of leaving Ernest early.
?Was it like 25 years ago
when sandra and i and uncle jack
watched paul henderson
puck the Russians.

But there I go again.

"hello I’m back
It’s Elsie" she petitions
The nursing home staff
With a laugh
As you drop her off
And say goodbye

?Whose coming next -
"It’ll be Susan – she has no money"
and hence requires no time to make it.
Well - I want to see you too
To talk again of things you knew

And didn’t.
Like the one catch in the invitation
To share nice nursing home digs
With an old friend -
"She came with oxygen."


He saw to the fraction
The backyard noise continue - ?conspiratorially …

It’s a two saw nite
So I can’t be right
That he’s working twice as hard
By alternating yards.

But maybe he’s a friend
Of the grocer round the bend
And will profit at least a fraction
From my drinking to distraction.


Hope at the top of the hill (28/07)

Music starts them talking
Or sometimes they stop
Because it’s the top
Of the hill

Get yourself a local for a chat
Either way
You’re gonna say
It en Francais –
Or hope you will


L’isle d’orleans (29/07)

One big strawberry field
Punctuated by potatoes and corn.
Seven saints with a parish each
A place to worship by the beach
A pulpit to blow the horn


Don't Bach with the separation card (30/07)

dorothy and i do church


Bach brings them in
250 years after death
he’s helping the ministry of culture
fill Quebec’s churches.

Not distinct, but distinctly separate.

Wolfe won the plains in 20 minutes
After 3 months of bombardment
Then built the citadel
To keep out the Yankee lust.

And it didn’t cost much
To ensure the canons
Could also be turned on the city.

Sure we’ve had our "Crisis"
The occasional political assassination
Even referendum angst with its racial slurs.

Someday even the separation card
Will no longer be playable.
But don’t wait for it.


Remember them (30/07)

"Remember Ms X and Mr. Y –
Ill this week –
And pray for Mr. Z –
Cause he’s dead."

This strikes a Freddie pang.
As do the bells – they ring
To welcome this first church in months.

I do thirst
Search the truths
Found in wisdom’s mouths
In sickness’ reach
Even death’s departure

"ah men"
and women
remember them.


One choice (31/07)

A deadline tomorrow –
The hard of choosing
Can no longer be relocated
To some future wisdom.

Choice has practical implications -
The symbolic weight
Should not be undervalued.

Esteem the process –
Reward yourself
Selecting one of life’s
Difficult paths.

Respect that one –
Its time will run
You’ll choose again.


Harder (31/07)

I like it getting harder –
I thought I knew my limits.
How to confront them
And nurture tough.

Think on my feet
And stumble - en Francais –
Au guitar – dans les escaliers –
Un certain sorte de risque

Take some new ones
Don’t be paralyzed by fear of not having
What I might lose
If I like it getting harder.


Easily irked in the act (31/07)

Something in the act irked me
The gall the vanity the misguidedness
of a pre-run stretch
beside a major roadway.

Okay, so
Take some time
To look around
And see what more impossible place
The runner may have come from.

Heh,
Recall my own
(never realized)
plan to print my phone number
on a t shirt worn running
on a daily commute
across the second narrows bridge

now,
that was an easy stretch
wasn’t it.

Yesterday’s horizon (05/09/00)

not much left of the day
don't want much more
anyway

i got here
on the long road
from yesterday

to the horizon -
there's just a little light
for flags to pray

Copyright Notice © 2000 Peter Gillies