Présences du littéraire dans l’espace public canadien

- ‘the square is the only major shape that is man-made’

a pause, of sorts.             a rupture

in the stolid brick

& concrete rote

that is the city’s downtown counting;

our stepped caesura.

            it has been here — we have been

here — for the tumult & explosion

of the core, its people.

            a frenetic foreign chaos of

debris.             we

have been right here

& shuffled the icy restlessness

of near-zeroed november

mornings & — mindless — kicked at

what’s been cobbled,

together.               we have,

i’m sure, been here — just

some of us — a slight

bit drunk.             loose shouldered &

slack jawed, searching

the night’s unsteady dark for

a fight, for a bite of salty meat or slice

of pizza.               we have been here,

however briefly,

on the way: up, or down,

or over.                we have been here;

we have been.                 

            we have, at very least,

just this: a near accidental architecture

of moments; a shape of who we are.