censorship
once battled, right here,
now welcome.
how lonely
is the mind that questions those
with all the answers

eat your fill
while you're still able,
and drink deep
when you can;
for all these abandoned dreams
take us with them, too

we made it --
we made lots of its,
long ago --
but we stopped
when people decided that
neighbors cost too much

dangerous?
you wouldn't know it
unless you
have walked here
and have seen the relentless
way it wears kids down

words that sound
with no one present
to speak them
still get heard
by souls reaching to recall
all that they have lost

here among
the reviled living
close to where
choices fall
down like sunlight between trees
too long on diets

we struck a
capacity pact:
leaving hate,
lifting love,
making space for what counted —
kinder sorts of truth

lost again,
and still wandering,
wondering:
with this frame
would some great journey of fate
have been undertaken?

the chill comes —
really, never leaves –
and we see
it’s simple:
you either make it or don’t,
here on hudson bay