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.