National Poetry Month : Blaine Marchand,

 

 

 

Strongholds

 

I stroll along neighbourhood streets where, at curbside, 
dumpster bins overflow with debris from century houses  
pulled down – wafts of insulation, smashed windows,

chunks of lathing and plaster, asphalt shingles -- 
streetscapes forever altered, no longer deemed adequate.

 

By one, a ragtag cardboard box spills books. I rummage through 

a dog-eared Interpretation of Dreams, a pencil annotated 

Waiting for Godot, a Fulton Sheen Daily Missal, laden with prayer 

cards that intercede for the salvation of the departed.
Cast-off relics of someone’s former beliefs.

 

At the turn for Wellington, cargo trailers litter the streets, bring me
to a standstill. The air grumbles with music, megaphones, horns, 
and complaint of engines. A woman pushes past me. "When we sing, 
enemies flee,” she chants. Seven times she walks the Hill's perimeter,

proclaiming the government, like the walls of Jericho, will tumble down.

 

 

 

 

Blaine Marchand's writing has appeared across Canada, the US, Pakistan, India and New Zealand. His seventh collection of poetry, Becoming History, was published in August 2021 by Aeolus House.  He is currently finalizing a new manuscript, Promenade. He lives in Ottawa.