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Treading Water

by Cam McAlpine

The old man with the paper bag is beaten to the ground by boys, purple wine
mingling with blood pouring from his face as he doubles over, retches.

We swerve to avoid a confrontation. “It looks like his arm’s broken.”
The silence of us all as we pick up speed. It never happened. And did it?

Later, in the icy waters below Cheslatta Falls where a perpetual mist hangs
in its own slant light, am swimming, head bobbing just above the surface.

Logging trucks barrel by trailing great clouds of dust. And on the other side
of the Nechako, this river that drowned three boys last year, the feller-bunchers *

are chewing trees. Above these falls the quicksilver rapids now smash
against a rock ledge formed from the gentle current of a thousand million years.

Am swimming and that’s all. Dozens of new spur roads since the last time *
we were out this way. There’s times the trucks roll down the road

at intervals of less than fifteen minutes. If there hasn’t been a good rain
the dust never settles. It’s just globes of light moving both ways,

the odd piece of tumbling bark, pine trees turning grey.
(near Vanderhoof, BC)


* “feller-bunchers” - large tractor-like machines that cut trees down and load them into piles ready for trucking, thus reducing the necessary labour force by two-thirds

* “spur roads” - small access roads into logging cut blocks.

Cam McAlpine is a writer and editor living in Prince George, BC. Previous publications include Canadian Literature, West Coast Line, The Capilano Review, and It’s Still Winter.

 

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The Danforth Review is produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. All content is copyright of its creator and cannot be copied, printed, or downloaded without the consent of its creator. The Danforth Review is edited by Michael Bryson. Poetry Editors are Geoff Cook and Shane Neilson. Reviews Editors are Anthony Metivier (fiction) and Erin Gouthro (poetry). TDR alumnus officio: K.I. Press. All views expressed are those of the writer only. International submissions are encouraged. The Danforth Review is archived in the National Library of Canada. ISSN 1494-6114. 

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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $19.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada. Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi 19,1 millions de dollars l'an dernier dans les lettres et l'édition à travers le Canada.