the brilliance
of New Year's fireworks
at forty below
the colder it gets
the warmer we are
waiting for the bus
in morning's half light
not knowing
it would be the last time
she would hear her name
f i n a l l y
the river trail freezes
our ski tracks
the only graffiti
in this whitewashed city
at the corner
of poverty and despair
an Indigenous girl
is found in the river
I weep, I weep
on the midway
corn dogs and candy floss
a year older
but still not tall enough
to ride the roller coaster
peregrines
are nesting again
four chicks
on a hotel roof
peer into the lens
still waiting
year after year after year
for the news
how could no one have seen
or heard anything that night
city lights
in the frozen distance
spires reaching
toward the heavens
searching for a god
the neighbours
hibernate all winter
e m e r g i n g
into their backyards
like white-throated sparrows
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