Catalogue d’Oiseaux, Toronto < — > Mainz-Kastel is a chapbook released in April 2018 by above/ground books that is an excerpt from an ongoing larger poem that stitches together travel and art and love. Buy a copy now! You can read an excerpt from a different part of the poem at Chaudiere Book’s National Poetry Month blog and an excerpt from the chapbook below:
A Sunday afternoon, that morning, our Toronto bed
the cedar smoke from the neighbor Anishinaabe centre
mingles with late autumn rain pecking at the window
with the drums & chants from the ceremony next door
& the clouds bend to our sleep, make themselves soothing
our asleep waterhands over each other, like cirrus or silty dreams
our waking causes the rain to pause momentarily
& it resumes only when we kiss softly good morning, hold
you, soft sea mist, cajole us from our bed eventually
the promise of our favourite simple diner, Chew Chews
the runny yolks over potatoes, toast with strawberry jam
the server overexcited that Cher & Queen Latifah
film there next week, his hands clasped as he repeats
& we finish our breakfast, walk through Cabbagetown
under umbrellas, soft patter, watery dance steps
buy lattes from Jet Fuel, milky & vapoursteam, continue east
this neighbourhood named for the poverty of its Irish settlers
tailoring & lining their front yards with the large green brassica