Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “MapQuest” by Allison LaSorda.

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MapQuest

By Allison LaSorda

It must be worth the two-year construction project

since our balcony railings, now impenetrable to light

and nipple-high, shield the need to bestow our scars

or questionable nudity or arousal to the facing houses

who can afford views framed in any other direction.

Not here. Each day cycles the same scene.

Night rendered impotent by light pollution,

hovering like vapour. White noise vibrating

from the parkway, a lullaby, to me, having come

of age by the 401’s din; long-hauler uncle honking

on his 2am return route. Give us the urban core,

its ridiculous form and shadow perspective,

CCTV polyps and coded neighbourhoods.

We’re in love with the city’s self-centredness.

Bus schedule never aligning, human obstacles,

housing bubble evictions, a low-flying helicopter

certainly out to get us. If we’ve worked this hard

to get here, surely beauty is owed. Indulgences

stowed away for the greater moment that’s been sold.

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Copyright © Laurie Koensgen

Previously published in the Literary Review of Canada.

Laurie Koensgen lives and writes in Ottawa, Canada. Her poetry appears internationally in journals, anthologies and online magazines. Recent publishers include Stone Circle Review, flo. Literary Magazine, The Madrigal, and Rust and Moth. She’s a founding member of the Ruby Tuesday Writing Group. Laurie’s latest chapbook, Small Psalms for Moving On, is with Pinhole Poetry.

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