Never a Dull Moment on Elgin Street
by Ted Elliot
Kyrie Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
It’s the most interesting place
you’ll ever go.
I’ll tell you about it on the walk over.
It’s a spicy thing,
you’ll need a chase;
keeping pace with people
you don’t know.
The tattooed girl sits
with bare feet on the carpet.
Does her heart still work?
On Elgin spins the wheel,
enlightening few.
The motorcycle roars past, blowing
newspapers to the gutter.
“I love your jacket!”
You walk past that racket,
without a flutter.
Cigarettes, coffee.
She groans at the sight of them,
he left his boxer shorts.
In a sentimental mood,
attenuated jazz horns make love
to the night.
Here lie the remnants of memory,
forever in limbo.
And if you spark the lighter,
be certain of the flame, alighting
your charcoal eyes.
She sips on creative juice.
At the turn of the harvest moon,
colours, resplendent.
There’s a ripple on the Rideau.
An ash falls on the green,
unseen to the perky few
littering the slope
in the shadow of the clock tower.
And if you must know,
there is but an hour left to go.
She crackles lightly -
does the sun know the pouring rain?
She crawls into fire.
Turbulently, you sit under
the autumn breeze.
Gently, he grasps you,
tracing paths in the veins of
your hands.
Doubtfully, you search for a word,
but only the void answers back.
She reaches the cave.
A breath, soothingly simple,
welcomes her in.
THE MESSAGE:
“Leave no epitaphs,
nor sing any odes,
complete a single task:
Please, remove your clothes
for the ones you will meet.
They have no use for pretension,
the only wish to hold your attention.”
Kyrie Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
Never a Dull Moment on Elgin Street by Ted Elliot is a Blasted Tree original poem