The drunken bicycles

off Kiamachi

green zen flag weeds

 

And there, below the High Level Bridge

shopping carts

slow migratory chevrons

 

In every heart

a notch where first rays light

in every single heart

 

This was my river

while your eyes watched the water

this was my river

frozen still

will spring come?

 

Unlock the wheels

that roll no farther

than the yellow line

between ours and mine

 

Oh rogue

shopping carts

Oh drunken bicycles

Life veering, random shear

wind lunging down to ravage earth

 

Maybe we should all get drunk and kiss

softly, sweetly, with gentle consensual intent

whenever we see dark clouds overhead

we could ward off tornados in this way

 

Maybe we should sacrifice

more shopping carts

to Kisaskatchewanisipi

so the fast-flowing river who binds

our city to her banks, will let the sad and desperate pass

find beds more warm and loving tonight

 

Like the drunken bicycles

off Kiamachi street bridges

satisfy the water’s hunger, ward off hara-kiri

see the tired and melancholic

latter-day samurai home.

 

Kisaskatchewanisipi is also known as the North Saskatachewan River, Edmonton’s main waterway. Kiamachi-dori is a great street in Kyoto. Before i went to Japan, a friend’s mom told of seeing bicycles lying in the canal beside Kiamachi, when she’d visited Kyoto a few years before me. Sure enough, every time i looked, there they were, the bicycles, just as one regularly sees shopping carts below the High Level.

all my relations

ams

p.s. this image, from the mighty Pixabay.com, purveyors of Creative Commons imagery, is of a bridge in Osaka… not Kyoto, but you get the picture…