Canadians
Here are
our signatures:
geese, fish, eskimo
faces, girl-guide
cookies, ink-drawings
tree-planting, summer
storms and winter
emanations.
We look
like a geography but
just scratch us
and we bleed
history, are full
of modest misery
are sensitive
to double-talk double-take
(and double-cross)
in a country
too wide
to be single in
Are we real or
did someone invent
us, was it Henry
Hudson Etienne Brûlé
or a carnival
of village girls?
Was it
a flock of nuns
a pity of indians
a gravyboat of
fur-traders, professional
explorers or those
amateur map-makers
our fathers
of Confederation?
Wherever you are
Charles Tupper Alexander
Galt Darcy McGee George
Cartier Ambrose Shea
Henry Crout Father
Ragueneau Lord Selkirk
and John A. - however
far into northness
you have walked -
when we call you
turn around and
don't look surprised
by: Miriam Waddington, born in Winnipeg Manitoba
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