Statues of Snowflakes
The campus
catchphrases are painted into the ground.
It's a clever
trick used by the University, you see
the majority of
the student population walks with their head down.
I remember the
first time I was surveyed by the cement
a simple square
of green and blue asking me "where are you going from here?"
Now, the first
idea to tickle my mind was natural and literal.
From here, I
would go into a building and sit at a table and learn
about John Ruskin's
ideas about the rustic, what cannot possibly be artistic
attempts at
stimulating the human brain.
But after that
class I searched every wall, floor and ceiling.
No one seemed to
care where I had come from.
Kitimat, British
Columbia. The end of the road, quite literally.
If Vancouver is
the moist, inner thigh of British Columbia then I'd say
Kitimat is that
toe that got frostbite when you went on that camping trip
It's a blip but
don't forget to count it.
My hometown
sports a statue at its entrance that says "Welcome to Kitimat".
A statue of a
snowflake.
That's right.
Welcome to Kitimat.There is nothing unique about this place.
We've even got
the snowflakes figured out.
But I'm less
interested in where I'm going and more in where I came from
because one
traveller's deadsville is another poet's pallet town.
I set out
determined to catch all the eyes I could find
make a dictionary
out of reactions and prove that this classroom structure means nothing.
Under the shade
of Kitimat's stifling branches I went insane, feeding my video game
membranes until I
could add up all the binary that these teachers spewed and spit back
Twos against
their ones and zeroes until I was a small-time hero.
Where I came from
taught me that the sometimes,
the most important thing you can learn from a guy like Ruskin
is that the
attractive, intelligent young lady a few rows back is a good kisser,
and doesn't that
stimulate the human brain?
So whether you come
from the moist inner thigh of BC or its frozen toes, remember that we're all
one giant leg up
on those who'd
stick their noses into the business known as the forseeable future.
and this limb has
a terrible case of gangreen and we can spread until we infest every student
body imaginable,
t.ear down these
statues of snowflakes and let each voice count itself among a chorus
Where am I going
from here? I don't know, but I sure won't forget how I got there.
There! ...you are now favorited in my new folder, Writing!
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