industrial soot over toaster streetcars
long-nosed rides sport an as-long ass
old city void of steel and glass
And so much more
thinks a newly-fired rose-seller
rising from her milk-crate
Rent to pay
no more kisses in the hot summer rain, just gutters flooding with corduroy pain
ad in hand, city felted grey
through a finger-scraped view
with a chain-link hue
imprisoned like a snake-plant
choking from the dust
in the window of the Diamond Box Lunch
over the bridge, cuts the city in two,
upturned trolleys clog a broken weir
soap-factory workers walk up beside the river
guys from Timmins hunting pickled eggs and beer
rooms by the week, dead-ending in cancer
coughing in the parlour, falling on the stairs
'Ladies and Escorts' tipping under 'Niteclub'
not many escorts, too many cares
rye and coke on a small cork tray
(but only the rims are dipped, they say)
there's money to be made in Men Only, he advises
where cash is physical
snappy fins and sawbucks
low on cocky groins
bulging up twill aprons
heavy-weighted coins
Power swells
no more kisses in the hot summer rain, just gutters flooding with corduroy pain
Jimmy the Greek, one of the boys
under unrelenting lights
swims in tile-echoed noise
heaves a metal tray, says
through waves of stale smoke
I fight the diddlers, I'm that kinda guy, eh?
it's 4 for 80 and a 20-cent tip
navigating circles through wet terry tables
trading full for empty
in hourly rotations
of pale white strippers with soft flat faces
pastel lingerie off goose-bumped arms
men stare hard at bruised net thighs
opening in rhythm to the juke box band, then
a fight breaks out!
they settle back to drinking
It's the job at hand.
Diane Massam has recently returned to her home town, Victoria, after many years away. She is currently completing a certificate in creative writing at the School for Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto. She was the 2021 winner of the BC Federation of Writers Poetry Contest and a winner of the 2020 Janice Colbert Poetry Award. She is also a linguist, writing on grammatical theory and Polynesian languages.