Riders on the Storm

Someone playing Riders on the Storm
on the jukebox with my breakfast.
The early piano run tinkling right into my brain
filling my soul with meadows
and thinking of some guy named Andrew Beddows
I could’ve taken toast off numerous tables
or 1/2-deserted eggs
the place is full in such a way;
like tables full of mostly-finished food
and other tables with people
sitting there, mostly waiting for food
and one or two unhurriedly at the jukebox.
Their breakfast comes and they stay with the box
married to the tunes
It’s a day where people are
flush with money
ready to spend. Pit stop, and then
the everlasting energy to shop for a day

Great Big Swan Eating Grass

Great Big Swan eating grass
Lost Lagoon is where he’s seen
never seen him up this close
walking through for one last swim
I am, at Sunset pool
dear Water: ride me
Ride me till I float
That orange bill on whiteswan head
is like an advertisement
Contrast the green grass he’s chewing
feel the hard gravel walk man has made
around his man-made lake
only a few feet deep
One last swim, but I’m going deep
Deeper to hear the last Rays of Summer
breathe on me from the West
Here an’ there a lazy child. not in school will swim by.

GOOD NEWS

50,000 jobs lost this summer
the radio announcer says
in his best, politiest voice
– he knows what he’s told to speak
“The Canadian economy’s doing well”
he adds, “15,000 jobs were added this summer”
Well I guess they don’t do simple
arithmetic in radio
but I can, I took it in
elementary school, and to me it seems there is a problem
Mr. Radio said it was good news
but I find it very sad
that my favourite record store
has left town, that is it used
to be a record store before
CDs came in
But it is no wonder the news
is not all it’s trumped up to be –
when all our work has to be
done out of the country
in countries where there
are no rules about pollution
and human labor
And when our newscasters
are forced to tell us
mind-altering “facts”
that don’t make sense at all
because if they don’t
they will soon join the 60,000
and so far as I can tell, it’s only September 5th,
Summer’s not nearly over