Friday, December 24, 2010

# 4 Bus

i like the streets of Ottawa
i get to see so many characters
i get to talk to strangers
and the anonymity is euphoric

but there was i
waiting for the number 4
to get downtown
where i can have some spicy asian food

and this guys says to me:
how long have you been waiting
and i say:
not very long, two minutes maybe

he asks me where i am from
(i always get asked)
and i tell him and that
there is still no ice up there, colder here than there

we talk and talk
small pointless chatter
he is a cook at the Briggs
and i am on holidays

and i light a cigarette
and this lady goes up to me
asks for one stick
i gladly oblige and pass her one

she says to her friend
this is tommy, he is my cousin (i am not totally sure, but anyone from Pang in Ottawa might be one)
and ben says, nice to meet you tommy
and she says her mother has cancer

i say the usual, so sorry
hope she feels better
hope she has good holidays
and she thanks me for it, says i am nice and i smile

we get on the number 4
and proceed to our seats
and she sits right by me, next to me
and says that she needs a break

been at the hospital for 4 weeks
a horrible alcoholic, she says, but you do
what you have to do
for family and she did what she had to do

i guess saying goodbyes
to a mother who is dying can
be tiring and depressing
because she says, she told her mother that

the dying mother said
she understand why her daughter,
my cousin, drinks a lot
and apparently she gave her permission

to continue her alcoholism
and tonight was her night
is her night and she is excited
says, been at it since three this afternoon, can you smell?

and i ask, is it vodka?
as she smiles satisfaction
and she starts talking to me
about crack-cocaine

see my teeth? i nod
(what a strange questions to ask)
and says, from smoking that crap, loosing teeth
still going to tonight
got some for free from a good friend

i think how good can he be
if he gives out free drugs
and i think again, not a lot of people
give away anything for free, especially crack

he must really be a good friend
and we are on the bus
in front of twenty white people
many of them with grey hair

and they all look our way and i know what they are
thinking and i start having thoughts
maybe i should pretend not to know people
next time, especially
people who are crack addicts and alcoholics

but as they get off, ben and her, she says aakkuluk
and gives me an eskimo kiss
and i have a feeling that even
alcoholics and crack addicts need and have to give love

i forget absolutely everything
and tell her the same, except i don't eskimo kiss her
and when they got off, an older lady says to me
its good to see love around the holidays

i smile at her
and outside, my cousin the alcoholic
waves goodbye to me
and i imagine smelling vodka
on her, and she smiles
and all i see are her ugly crooked and broken teeth
teeth that are rotting as we read.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

you have reaction buttons for "interesting", "funny", and "cool", but none for....

"beautiful".

You need to have a reaction button for that if you are going to keep writing stories like this.

Thank you;
and
Merry Christmas.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I don't understand why it's warmer in Nunavut than down here...makes no sense. A few days ago it was -2 in ALERT!!!

Soon the tropics will be like the arctic, and the arctic like the tropics? Haha.

p.s. That was a touching story.

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