on public-private financing for railways and ports,
distracted by the speaker's gaudy bowtie,
shining of reflective red, dotted with WASP
anchors, nautically-themed and silently
running through everything but the benefits
of lower-run interest rates for finance
by governments due to the security of return
rather than the history of roadways built
to last the rainy seasons of Thailand,
the way the slightly-sickly man's dress
shirt hung at the oddest of angles from side to hip,
as if he had not taken proper care in tucking,
as if he had simply rushed out the door
before fluttering in a mad rush of dot matrix
printer paper to the elegance of roomy,
wood-paneled bookshelves he stood astride
distracted me from my own, equal dressing
faux-pas: the colour clash of belt and
shoes, mainly, or was it merely a lazy
lamppost trick I played to claim some
other cause for what I could call,
by comparison:
some unfunded mandate, New Labour
private financing initiative gone awry,
or lack of water in Argentina's remote regions
though it would be altogether silly to compare.
Cherry Red.
I have felt the sun in shades,crossing creep from lawns shorn in
humming of summer passes, in
pitter-patter of misplaced hair strands,
perfectly-figured dress cuts.
Bathing in the milk-sewn pools of
August starlight, lipstick glint
bright as boyhood's blood, deep
as bar glass port, you dance
as light as breeze-blown cotton, as humid air.
You're the kind of person I
want to share 4AM under halogen with.
You're the type to leave deep echoes
where dreams had taken up their comfort.
Leaving but the memory, but the notion.
Carter Vance is a student and aspiring poet originally from Cobourg, Ontario, currently studying in the Social Work program at Algoma University in Sault Ste Marie. His work has appeared in such publications as The Baird's Tale, (parenthetical) and F(r)iction. He received an Honourable Mention from Contemporary Verse 2's Young Buck Poetry Awards in 2015. His work also appears on his personal blog, Comment is Welcome.
