I remember once
living inside
the land of ‘Dreams’
how different I was,
craving Coffee Crisp,
Butter tarts,
and Nanaimo Bars,
missing Jim Hewson’s voice
or Bob Cole,
while I watched
some cop show
on Saturday night.
We might be neighbors
until you add the ‘u’
and national pride
kicks in
like 3 fingers of JD
or the first drag
on a Camel 100,
and the Mac and Cheese
is stirred in the pot
though it smells and tastes
just like KD,
washed down by a soda
(diet no doubt).
I don’t say ‘aboot’
and New England
stole my ‘R’s
from time to time,
but I am Canadian,
the quiet kid up North
who says “Sorry!”
at the drop of a hat,
who thinks
that people from another place
are a cool chance
to learn something new
about them (and myself),
and once carried a gun
for work,
not because
I feared my neighbours
with or without
a ‘U’.
2025