In a student’s pocket lie fragments collected from a Montreal sidewalk
(A List)
Leaves on asphalt:
you leave
a book
a couch
a street
three boys on one couch on one street
the student in a towel on DeBullion
crosses paths with the boy in an apron
a cup of sugar in hand
cups of beer for the kids on the stoop
blue bins of Pabst beer cans
Stolen poster boards:
“Free Palestine”
“Vote Mulcair”
“Are you Alone?”
next to forgotten plastic bags
“next time” they say
hiding behind their box of groceries
boxed wine
dep wine
bought before closing
10:57 pm
01:00 am
Closing at Shwartz’s:
ashes from the owner’s cigarette on the counter
Opening at Mamie Clafoutie:
bread kneaded to a hip-hop beat
Grey sounds:
St. Laurent on a Sunday
borrowed cigarettes from a man
who fished them out of a candy pack
out of croissant crumbs
arranged in formation
decorations on the fountain on Prince Arthur
Location of:
two first kisses
an unanswered phone call
an answered question
that leads you
To carry:
the weight of a mattress
a conversation
With:
abandoned poets
underwater divers from Mexico forced to clean toilets
self proclaimed “shit disturbers”
sharing buses with the men in riot gear
Who stand against:
the sewage air
the cigarette hair
And between a pile of objects lost:
a phone
the plot
my pocket holds small losses
Sometimes
there is a man whose scent lingers
longer
than he does
To take his place:
a needle on my doorstep and
a 5 dollar rent inflation
