Tuesday Poem: Poetry in Transit - Jennica Harper
Vancouver has a great scheme - posting poems on the buses and the mass transit system. This one is by Canadian poet Jennica Harper
When he's gone she clicks the link, submits
her criteria through drop-down menus
2 or more bedrooms under 500k.
She waits for red dots to appear, a pox
she hopes to catch. No unique questions here:
do we need a lawn to mow? We would need a lawnmower.
Do we want a Korean girl in the lower, practising her
violin? No matter: no hits. At best it's three quarters of a mil
for a teardown. Or an Eastside special, kid sister with a lisp.
Still, there's hope in the glow . . . she rejigs, refines
her search, such fun at first, she knows she should stop when
the rub turns raw. The grass always greener in Dunbar.
But maybe, maybe today there's a high enough ceiling.
Once more, knock wood for the happy ending.
Copyright Jennica Harper, from Wood published by Anvil Press
In 2014 Wood was awarded the Dorothy Livesay Prize for the best book of poetry in British Columbia.
Vancouver - like many big cities - has a crisis in affordable housing. On my first evening here there was a news item lamenting that most of the young people born in 2000 (the Millenials) will have to move away from Vancouver because there is no way that they can afford to live here. Vancouver is a very expensive city for tourists as well as residents and I've witnessed a lot of poverty while I've been here - more people begging or sleeping on the streets than I've seen in London.
The Tuesday Poets are an international group who try to post a poem every Tuesday and take it in turns to edit the main hub. Please click the link if you'd like to see what other Tuesday Poets are posting.
Fever
When he's gone she clicks the link, submits
her criteria through drop-down menus
2 or more bedrooms under 500k.
She waits for red dots to appear, a pox
she hopes to catch. No unique questions here:
do we need a lawn to mow? We would need a lawnmower.
Do we want a Korean girl in the lower, practising her
violin? No matter: no hits. At best it's three quarters of a mil
for a teardown. Or an Eastside special, kid sister with a lisp.
Still, there's hope in the glow . . . she rejigs, refines
her search, such fun at first, she knows she should stop when
the rub turns raw. The grass always greener in Dunbar.
But maybe, maybe today there's a high enough ceiling.
Once more, knock wood for the happy ending.
Copyright Jennica Harper, from Wood published by Anvil Press
In 2014 Wood was awarded the Dorothy Livesay Prize for the best book of poetry in British Columbia.
Vancouver - like many big cities - has a crisis in affordable housing. On my first evening here there was a news item lamenting that most of the young people born in 2000 (the Millenials) will have to move away from Vancouver because there is no way that they can afford to live here. Vancouver is a very expensive city for tourists as well as residents and I've witnessed a lot of poverty while I've been here - more people begging or sleeping on the streets than I've seen in London.
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