National Poetry Month : Zane Koss,

 

The East River
  after José Emilio Pacheco

 

The buildings face the harbour
         Above me a seagull
at the peak of the bridge
         It was dusk
The sun sank
         Into New Jersey

Perhaps this was the Plains of Abraham
          from here Louis Riel staged his rebellion
and someone
           signed the documents of Confederation
           a series of eleven numbered treaties

Of Canada only certain traces are left
           planted in the snow
like drunken pissholes

The seagull was found amidst the surface scum
           of the harbour
not cruising in the sunset
           In decomposition

The cod from the Grand Banks
          are poisoned:    pesticides    trash
micro-scrubbing beads

Over Brooklyn seagulls continue to fly
         Today the hipsters
are monsters lying on the beach

The Canadians believed that John A. MacDonald
           night by night
died in the form of Lester B. Pearson
           voyaged thru the Land of the Dead
to reappear the following day
           [fortified with human blood]
as Justin Trudeau in the middle of the sky

The Fathers of Confederation live
        in Bushwick and Greenpoint now
where Newtown Creek belches rank fluid
        from the industrial park
into the ebb tide

The East River joins and separates
           dry land and Canadian Heritage Moments
Margaret Atwood is dead
           like the promises of 1763
in conformity with equitable principles

In Bushwick and Greenpoint
            they are constructing three pipelines
The Coeur-de-bois
            operate the pipe facing and internal welding machines
for the Supreme Court of Canada

The seagull spirals down
            Has Justin Trudeau
drained the blood of the night?

 

 

 

Zane Koss is a poet, translator, and scholar. His critical and creative work can be found in tripwire, Asymptote, Jacket2, the Chicago Review, the /temz/ Review, and elsewhere. He has published four chapbooks of poetry, The Odes (incomplete) and Invermere Grids (above/ground, 2020 and 2019), job site (Blasted Tree, 2018) and Warehouse Zone (PS Guelph, 2015).