All right! Came up with a title for the new collection with the help of my esteemed editor; The Skookum Raven. Currently working on book structure, the  manuscript is nearly complete. Themes and sections include work and labour-Clown Duty, love and sex-Ripe To Stray, nature and birds of all sorts of course-Skookum Raven, crime and violence-Detective Work and no dearth of character sketches we’ve dubbed Piratical. Also, not surprisingly, the book is replete with deep BC culture.

 

BIRD WATCHING

 

Binoculars resting on the sill

Blackly inveigle us to look.

The luxury of observation,

Royal silk roads.

 

Cotton sheets abuzz,

I sleep with a mad bomber

In a bed too narrow

To contain explosives.

 

Eroding acres encroach

Shores of receding flesh.

Grip off, I spy

Elfin hummers amok,

Flap-happy mallards

Swarming a blustery afternoon.

 

I recall bionic gunrunners, East Van,

First day back from gangster land.

Recoiling at the forecast I’d fled,

Cramped in a compact car,

A woman piloting the wife.

 

Blindfolded against his scrutiny,

Foiling implicit shame, I skirted

Roadblocks, sculpting my spine

Straight, forcing it

To withstand gales. Tolls.

 

Lousy steward, I drop

The argillite raven,

Gleaming abalone eyes divided.

 

I slap my back with hot plasters

So it might bend when necessary.

Fit inside. Repair.

 

When will listening

Reveal the shape? When

Will seeing decode the trick?