(with a curtsy to Lady Tweedsmuir)
Slow while I roll down the window.
No, the breeze flaps the maps.
But I want to take a photo.
We’ll never get there if I slow.
Brilliant scenery don’t you think?
Like a postcard, a painting, or
wallpaper for my computer:
endless forests of north Ontario,
boring expanses across the prairies,
inconvenient mountains in the west.
The people of British Columbia,
they’re a lardy lot, no? The way
they lay down roads through mountain
passes – Rogers, Kicking Horse, Crows Nest,
the way they beat the land into submission.
The people of Alberta – let me write it
in my book – a magical bunch,
the way they turn tar into crude
and natural wonder into money.
As for the people of north Ontario,
don’t get me started on that rugged band.
I’ve never talked to any of them,
but I look at the places they live
and imagine what I’d be like
if I lived there. That’s how I know.
Download the complete collection of poems and accompanying photographs as a pdf book.