From More to Keep Us Warm, a first book of poems published by ECW Press in 27.

It’s my duty to inform you I saw a flag waving suspiciously
outside Grand Central
Station.
I held my hands to myears and opened my mouth
and stood on one leg,
trying to signal the
authorities
just like the website
told me to,
but was only given
quarters by a street mime.
So I bought beer nutsfrom a guy standing next to a guy selling
watches, because you
can’t buy sugar coated nuts on the streets
in Canada and I wanted
to know what it meant to be an American.
And the flag moved sosmugly,
not selling or buying
anything,
just standing there
with a golden rod
protruding from its
rear,
displayed proudly as
peacock feathers.
No one seemed tonotice how the flag’s stripes were expanding,
spreading across the
city, towards the ocean.
I began to run across 42nd Street,
a trail of beer nuts
behind me,
making my way to Times
Square,
because I thought I
should see
or smoke crack
before I die,
but could afford
neither.
There, I hid amongst
the plush animals of the Disney Store
and by a gigantic
Mickey Mouse head I sat down and wept.