Sylvie Hill

Who Do You Love On Duluth?

I am in love with the city
Not the man even though I’d fetch him
With a fractured rib after a bicycle accident
from Westmount, Montreal “Walk? Come on!”

That early morning stroll about
Man, it was only eight thirty out
Avenue Duluth: everyone asleep in this town
After a night of being alive and on prowl.

“Of Montreal” I want to be of her streets
like Moinneau coffee with Sophie under trees
and a tea at the station at one a.m. thirty
Leonard Cohen playing at Café Neve over chocolatine.

I’m too knee-deep in transition for a relationship
And you see them Irish girls as they threaten
But from Ottawa to Montreal to Ireland
We two rot, stew and are wanting it.

Christ, let us forge in the smithy of our souls
the desperate cry of our ages for more!
Skin wind-swept by Atlantic shores
Your body broke, Montreal calls you forth.

And New Zealand, ah,
you won’t catch me there!
Simple friend, young gentleman
Plan fast for I’m bound for Rue Rachel.

I’m about to make you feel quite bad
If I go and whisper how “it’s so grand”
Why can we sleep and wake together once
But not solve each other’s obvious problem?

Sylvie Hill 2016