‘AMERICA GIVES ME THE BENDS’
Arden Tritt is an Adative Art Instructor in Atlanta, GA. Her poetry is inspired from nature, personal experiences, human connection, and finding meaning & purpose in this life. She has been writing poetry for 14 years as a hobby and outlet to express herself.
AMERICA GIVES ME THE BENDS
I want to come up for air
but I know I can’t do it too fast.
Every Canadian child has the god-given right
to skate for free (meaning taxpayers’ expense).
But Rockefeller Centre charge $7.50 per hour,
the free market controls the ice rinks.
When I get within smelling distance of the Falls,
Knowing that soon I can cross a bridge and be home,
I start to get nervous. I want to drive faster.
I want to drive safely. In kilometers.
Stars and stripes are so angular,
Sharp points and borders.
The points on the blood red maple leaf
are soft in comparison.
The last autumn leaf on the white snow.
I never sleep in New York.
I never wake up in Florida.
I’m only right when I’m here,
the grind of streetcars under the blink of the tower,
the rise of the land from the lake’s edge
to the next lake, a world of land and rock
a kinder, gentler landscape than the
auto plants of Detroit, the chemical air of Buffalo.
I am afraid that if I come up too fast
that the softness of the vineyards of Jordan and Winona
will make my blood bubble,
even more than fake champagne,
the escarpment will crash down on me.
Only here can I stand up straight,
unencumbered by the American version of liberty.
My heart stops pounding after the bridge
each time.
Speed is in kilometres,
more in numbers.
The bubbles in my blood
dissipate.
My country, my hyperbaric chamber.
Lucile Barker is an unhoused Toronto poet, writer and activist. Since 1994, she has been the co-ordinator of the Joy of Writing, a weekly workshop at the Ralph Thornton Centre which is sponsored by the Ralph Thornton Center and the Queen Saulter Branch of the Toronto Public Library. Her prose and poetry have been published in print, on-line and broadcast. She is viewing her current situation as an adventure and material for future work.
