"The Edge of Everything" by Ross Belot
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: May 12, 2017 12:44 PM | Last Updated: May 12, 2017
on leaving
the dog down the
street that has
been driving you
crazy with
its barking when
you go to bed is
missing it is fall, that
time of
murmurations,
but no, the starlings
don't seem to
be around this
year the
squirrels and
chipmunks have
chipmunks have
abandoned your
yard robots
are not
calling
your cell phone
to tell you
about a
free cruise
you've won, again
Facebook stops
suggesting young
women in
bikinis in
New Zealand
as friends
even
though you
have no friends
in common you
are staring
at your door
Black And White Image Of Frozen Beach: Lake Erie Ice Stretched Out To Open Water's Thin Blade, Sun High, Reflection Of Sun A Shining Path Across A Water Horizon, Across Buckled Ice, Across Sand Blended With Hard Snow Blended With Sand
I know she died that day
or maybe not until the next.
On the way to the hospital
I stopped and took the photo,
the ice, the water, the sky — in real life not black and white but all Prussian blue
set with an overly brilliant sun. I'm not saying it felt like death
exactly, more like the moment before
or the moment after and I remember thinking of a sparrow's song -
rapid and thin. There was no sparrow,
the beach and sky devoid of life except for occasional explosive cracks from ice
as it pushed itself ashore
while drinking granville island lager @YYC february 12th 4 pm
warm february wind
sweetened through mountain
passes grizzlies up asleep
in soft caves
dream dreams of blood
on railway tracks
the haints
whistle in the valley
a warning a call
to us living
on the dead years
of death to feed on the builders
are here too tearing up ground digging
towards the centre ripping down
the old notice
the
air something wrong
happy
mountains
foretelling the end
today's sky blue cloud
shifting above Chinook
winds know
bolted landscape
standing at the crossroads a place called vista:
the I 680's George Miller Jr. Memorial Bridge (southbound)
the Congressman George Miller Bridge (northbound)
and
across the Carquinez Strait oil refineries at
either end Shell Martinez Tesoro Martinez
Valero (nee Exxon) Benicia the rusted
stretch of rail road bridge the Union Pacific Railroad
Benicia-Martinez Drawbridge (1928)
up the middle
a red tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) conservation status:
"of least concern, population increasing)"
the curve of concrete I 680 overpass behind
and above me
simple: mountain
sky water hawk
12 Dancers On 12 Tables
otherwise we are lost — Pina Bausch
spread across the quad
dramatists, the tables
don't think
about what the tables mean
just get on
the tables and do the thing
dancers slow spin on tables
we here go, they say
one at at time
before silent shifts
under blue sky take it all
in examine closely all the details....
"here" "we" "go"
crow above faster crow adds his input whole other duet thing
really beautiful
partially about the quality
in bodies cultivate sensation anger
floating take ownership right away
okay think we're done
beneath the white pillars
some of you drop
some of you praying beneath
ready go again
cue you every night girl open-mouth at crow
flies over hops over broken ways walks over old man arthritic knees way
long boards to bookstore
that's a mess but looks really nice
ending in applause