Chinese Song Birds

Chinese Song Birds

Silence.
The absence of
Song Birds.
The pollution kills
them.
The peasants eat
them.
The absence of
Song Birds.
Silence.

Father's Day 1956

Father's Day 1956

Piles of scrap wood lay neatly
by the grey cinder brick wall.
The pungent scent of fresh
cut pine for a chest of drawers
hangs in the air.


With my miniature tools
I mimic my father as he
sands, planes and chisels
with short calloused fingers.

More gestures than words
he guides my project, a
wooden boat, rows of finishing
nails joined with string make
a railing.

It floats in the bath tub that
night as mom washes the
saw dust from my hair.

'My Tie"

My Ties

Mickey Mouse,
another features
Goofy from a trip
to Disneyland
in silk @ $ 45 in 1983.

My ties are
a timeline
wide then narrow
and then back again
Like strata in an
archaeological dig.

Patriotic:Canada Day
Fall colours,
weddings,
funerals,
seasonal,
school days,
sports events,
Skakespeare in
bright yellow
a gift from my daughter.

Reposing and resting
in a dark closet
a story of a life.
Now, out of practice,
it takes me three tries
to make a Windsor knot.

At the Speed of Sound

At the Speed of Sound

Smells associated with sounds,
events with songs,
The Mamas and the Papas,
James Taylor and Mud Slide Slim,
Elton John and Yellow Brick Road,
Goats Head Soup

the Rolling Stones...

"Coming down again
Sky fall down again."

(saxophone, piano and drums
in the background...fade)

"Where are all my friends?
Sky fall down again."

"All my times been spent
coming down again."

Lyrics as time machines.
I set the dials
for a time in the seventies
when and where
record stores with
album covers still existed.
a lost art form.

Seven short images

Spring
fragile white spring blossoms,
pollen widespread,
asthma,
fuck spring!


Beer
roses are red,
violets are blue,
beer isn't either,
beer

Male Shoppers
male shoppers
like a slowly meandering river
stagnant and
lost

Canada Geese
magestic canada goose
flies south
a legacy of
bird shit

Bacon
roses are red
bacon is red
poetry is difficult
bacon

Romantishe Oper
opera stills the night
white wine arouses
the senses
libretto

Passion
fumbling for keys
the door swings wide
inside shedding
their evening dress
passionately