From More to Keep Us Warm, a first book of poems published by ECW Press in 2007.
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 The Lion King 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.
