huck

SPANISH-CANADIAN

And then there was
the girl who wanted me to
sing for her in Spanish
on her birthday, as I'd
spontaneated once before
in what must have seemed
a romantic gesture
when in fact I only needed
something to occupy my
hands and mouth once
our stormy little folly
had evaporated fully
in the daylight

For reasons I
cannot explain
this memory was stirred
by the sight of a
timorous Canadian tourist
grasping for a handrail
on one of my ubiquitous
buses

"There's only one station
in town
and we ain't there yet, so
si' down"

Anyway, I don't even
play that song anymore, and
I remember only
the first two lines: Hoy
es un dia
quando un simple beso
resolveria un todo
hacernos un
olvidar

MINUTIAE COLLAGE

The morning after I'd cluttered
a certain lady friend's apartment
and patience - a vintage crooning
in the air - I undressed and dressed
in my own bedroom, thought I heard
a seagull caw and dive-bomb
an eddy of sirens - round here
ambulance drivers are trained
twenty-four-seven
in alarming the community - but
seagulls
there were none.

Must buy a doorstop! I euraka'd
amid the tedious clatter of through-
drafts slamming my door. Five

minutes later I was in the local store,
savouring the new girl's dainty
hello, and noting how
her smooth brown face
suffused itself with smiles
despite a hungoveravenous
general public. Remarkable
resilience, but she'll learn... Stuffing
two receipts into my pocket, the line
To bludgeon her anon! just kind of
popped
into my head.

Then at the bus stop
I considered how sad it is
that no-one is allowed
to court a meaningful eye contact.

Dionysus,
you're a fraud, remarked
one of my more elliptical voices.