War Poet.ca - A CFAP Project by Suzanne Steele

Canada Day

Jul 1, 2009

for C and C, MCpl A, and all the others we’ve lost


dawn broke white, clear
the bank of fog lifted like frosting
high above the sea layer
a brilliant birthday cake day

so I took my dogs,
set them loose to bark,
dig holes, roll in dirt,
laced my boots, walked alone

to Tower Point on soles
that walked the breadth of Spain
when you were all alive
somewhere on the Pacific and Panjawaii

it takes a walk in Spain sometimes
of left right left right
to open one’s eyes, one’s mind
of this land, something greater

than all of us, a call
father, son, daughter, brother, lover, niece,
you were alive then, heard it all
while I walked a meseta.

all holidays suffer now.
still, we fill the picnic basket
with loaves of bread, gypsy sausage,
cheese, your favourite beer,

our gratefulness found
for you in all of us, for this place,
for you the dead, who tried so very hard
to make it home.

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