Bitter exchanges or the cost of a paradigm unexamined, unbroken
In this episode, I explore what happened in the wake of my medicinal metempsychosis. While I have regained a sizeable portion of body weight in a short time, I am unable to gain the respect and support of my brother and father. Feeling alone, I dedicate myself to leaving Ontario for British Columbia, but the troubles I leave behind become the troubles that remain on the road ahead.
“Nothing but the saddest of all confessions that a man can make - the confession of his own folly.”
Sunset on Lake Ontario, Stony Creek
At Home with my Father (August)
Father and Sons - Port Dalhousie, St. Catharines
I sit outside with you;
I can smell the flowers you
Planted in long ago May,
The ones you planted while I was away
Recovering, healing…
You hold your guitar
And strum your song
Fingers picking, plucking complacent strings,
Your instrument, a summer day, this
Shield, striding to guide
The silence of conversation,
How you sit
And how you sway,
Sometimes eyes glazed over,
Eyes distant behind the glasses
Three Friends - Port Dalhousie, St. Catharines
And the sable beard.
….
We talk, looking out over the
Flowers and gardens,
At the amber leaves
Of a nameless tree,
You come in and out of our conversation
As if you were coming
Up for air,
And then you go
Sunset - Port Dalhousie, St. Catharines
Down, down again with your song,
And your finely plucked strings.
I talk about my last day of
Work, about leaving near
The end of the month…
Where am I planning to stay, you inquire
When I get out there.
I’ll stay with a friend, I reply.
You nod and sway and
Sink back again and again
And me, again and again,
Listening, feeling like I am like
some lost boat
Before it sets out from shore
Sad but happy.
Happy, yet sad.
Lake Ontario from Port Dalhousie, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada