writing on the ridge


for donna kane



on the ridge donna kane:
I thot you were a paranoid, 
but now just cursed

describes a red light behind me in the bush 
honed in to track me down 
that only I can see

she almost agrees, it's really there 
to find me even here

Like cops in new york, a bust 
for a 3.5 beer, or

border guards as hegemonic device, who ask my name 
and deny they did

the paranoid it's true, is the one in true 
possession of the facts;

truth & what else goes out 
- a life punished without full enrollment. 
& what gift given only to bring me trouble

the light: red: hegemonic/demonic 
out there on the ridge, serial and un-
written, tapped to a source

god or devil now somehow both 
the same

o cursed, I'm made to reverse that I'm made to laugh 
in my happiness & light

the light and good / not dark nor shade nor 
demon red

.


on a dark street in tumbler ridge 
a dark car pulls out and follows 
every turn

who is that she asks? it's the light, the secret 
police. it's the curse of what we know

a moment   in the meaning
 of life 

noise & silence/ these our words without words 

it's the writing on the ridge

she begins to weave the car in laughter, this 
curse to be with me. 

- flash of red light behind us

•



barry mckinnon