Paintings by local artists: talent
As halitosis, no radical belch
Of abstract genius here, Newman, Rothko
Not even smelled on the wind. The dry-goods
store
Exudes stuff from the old country, Chivers
Orange marmalade, Heinz's tinned treacle,
O-Can-a-dandy ripe with pimples oozing
Through the grille of the priest's box, our
adolescent
Nation confessing the culinary sins of the dad.
Off Main, gift stores bristle with
Christmas ornaments, snowmen with carrot
noses
And catatonic smiles, all made in China
Or the Philippines, washed up on the banks
Of the canal like bubbles of hard labor.
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Nearby, a condom fetches up against
A yacht called "Lady Di II," royalty saluting
The moon from where she's moored at By Bridge,
one
thing
Straining after another, the Three Amigos
Of faint, white hope in a town not given to
symbols.
Nicholas Lomonosoff lives in Nepean, Ontario, Canada.
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