How Niagara Falls by bp Nichol

the two
dolphins in
their tank
doing
what is called
“the dance”
by poets
and
the crowd
around

………a
full afternoon
of
dancing around

the
…..D
the monkey’s tail made
in 
that
painting by
Seurat
the shoe-store owner
imitated
for purpose of
display

mo-
tels.

more & more
mo-
tels.

fish mouths
in
supplication

“Double
………….or
Single
Breakfast of
Bacon & Eggs”

“My dear
where
have you been?
What’ve you been
doing? I mean
where have you been?”

At this spot
General Brock
yelled
“forward
.men of York!”
the
Niagara
Parks Commission
built a monument.

the
rest of us
look for
slogans
on which to
base our immortality

they’ve
allowed
Missisauga to
rot, “a
most pitiable
crime.”  the 
doorway to
the second storey
cannot be seen 
any longer

past journeys
are
implied

presence
is
present

the highway
follows the gorge
from 
the border
to
the fort
they built
called
Missisauga
then
never used

it is the same
on both sides -the way
the road
goes, the way
the motels rose

“We
want you to
live”
……..U.S.DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE
……..AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE
……..PLANT QUARANTINE DIVISION

Rooms for tourists
seems
logical
in
a place
no one
would want
to live – all
that water
..to go
over the edge

we bought
shoes in
the shoe store, a
wooden frog
in
the
aquarium, those
things
……….a
person collects
he
refers
the
present to

no
feelings
just
objects. no
things we
wanted to
remember
the day by.

beyond the fort
Lake Ontario had
worn the shore away. the
sky
was grey. it
rained
most of the day.

leaving the American side
a couple were kissing
just because they stood
on
the border line.

---

Source: Bowering, George (ed). Imago 10: Featuring bp Nichol. Montreal: English Dept., Sir George Williams University, 1967. Accessed on JSTOR 

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