Globetrotter
(From Globetrotter & Hitler’s Children – New York: Akashic Books, 2009)
g
a yielding of earth
leaves soft patch
for migrant foot
plucked
from far-flung places
much like slugs
mud-plucked
shelled
in silt
snow-cracked heels
in seasonal sludge
frost-sutured foot
scalpel-paired
to true
bureaucratic ache
across equators
inch for heavy inch
each foot
widen with pain
twelve inches deep
with each official inch
towards Canada
tenderfoot!
toronto is soft landing
and gauze
h
turn your migrant heel
twelve paces
of endless yonge –
tireless snake
rattled
by traffic
hydra-headed
in all direction
hissing
through town
up or down
from north york to lake’s shore-
each sole you decry
pedestrian
as the stroll of malls and shops
is your ghost’s
blown across time-trapped landscapes
you traversed
solid
twelve paces
and toronto’s face
mirrors the face
you must daily face-
self
disembodied
i
twelve inches!
make one foot
lift
arithmetic
to the street…
is the equation
of man or maiden
you meet
yellow-white-black simple
grey unabashed-brown
or simply canadian?
j
silly!
as allemagne
or sudan is silly
hue of eye or hair
chin-cleft or brow-bend
scaled
(indifferent ridges)
is sss silly
uncivil
park-dog howls
inane
civet-cat mewling
un-canadian …
k
toronto
city of rainbow and covenants
under the shade of the maple leaf
fork-tongued
full of babble
coherent
as babel is not
cubist dream
city within city within
where
to take root
germinate
and flower
you must up-
turn your soil
and sole
tenderfoot
be firm graft
new node
become a branch
on the maple tree
An interesting piece!! Isme