CANADA DRY
My pay says heave ‘er
So chinooked in Chicoutimi
For all the Mary-Christs & Little Johns
Broken from faith but still wrong
So fuck a grand vessel, tails dance or mastiffs
A shinny I’d say Souris
For liquour laws controlled by the Crown
And the midst leaves no bars
Juicy uncaged deuce ode
Batawa bound with a Bloody Caesar
For inquiring mimes want to show
In a bureaucrat’s five-pound drain
Seek ye delay nut
Ookpik onboard an Okanagan outpost
For man bites God
A left hook, a broken aye
Languish new mitten rev sir divest plain
Fiddleheads of Flin Flon
For a priestly demolition
A feckless skimmer in that old lean development
Sizzle bats or canoe havin’ bat’s teeth
Pogey people passing Penetanguishine
For the Merry Devil of Edmonton
Like fossils on the scrotum of the quay
There’s none serving ten
With toques touted to Trenton
For a Bilingual Tim Donut
For the hate stint stinging its part
Feign sea surround petty round taut
Sasquatch skookum stupid so Sackville
For Now’s here; why’s I?
They are creating new minds for dimming
No try justification, no try method, no try eaten
Tourtiere tastes of Toronto
For it made this town CRAZY for kung fu!
I cruise, a lone rat
Disease our mutters
A potlatch for Point Pelee
For whatever else poetry is free & dumb
And we have acquired the ways of strangers
— Stephen Cain
____
from the Coach House Books collection, American Standard/Canada Dry