She steps into the window.
caught on the edge of what is, is not,
she pauses: police cars speed to stop: blood on the sidewalk,
framed by lifeless dolls dressed in black,
icons of beauty;
she mourns what once was, she thought:
or maybe it was naught,
she does not know;
she hears a cacophony of voices, babble on the street,
in the window, she, a lifeless doll, is caught
by what is, is not;
memories of Molotov cocktails and soldiers,
kidnap and murder, October 1970,
home grown terrorists did not uproot Cohen's Suzanne from its core;
yet as past colors fade to sepia in the window of what is, is not
fresh blood, crimson against cerulean, slaps her;
a young girl of 17, stabbed in front of her,
and she who steps into the window becomes window girl;
she gasps, clutches hand to mouth, is shaken from her core,
she aches, in one last moment before freeze-frame;
as she steps forward to help,
she's caught on the edge of what is, is not:
she cannot move, trapped,
but not I
nor you.
* * *
This photo is of Ogilvie's Department Store in Montreal, 2007, which used to close each business day with Bagpipes. Ogilvie's now is primarily a collection of boutiques.
The reference to Molotov Cocktails, soldiers, October 1970, kidnap and murder is a reference to Quebec's October Crisis, when the FLQ (Front du Liberation pour Quebec) Quebec Liberation Front - kidnapped and killed Pierre Laporte and kidnapped British Trade Minister James Cross. Hundreds of solidiers were stationed in Montreal. It was a time of fear and violence.
Cohen's Suzanne is a reference to Leonard Cohen's song, Suzanne, the ultimate song about Montreal. (It is about Suzanne, too, but is also about Montreal).
The rest of this is a fictional construct.
Copyright © 2008 Kathryn Esplin-Oleski
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Comments: 113
Not to leave out of course the Bard's The Winter's Tale, one of my favorite of his plays.
And the archetype of Pygmalion also plays out in our favorite tale of the wooden boy...Pinocchio...
I see the archetype of Pygmalion as presenting our grief about death, about our inability to effect change in the face of permanent reality as an attempt to cope with this painful human condition.
The rhyming was completely unconscious but I did become aware of it as I was proofing.
And probably later this week I will write Part 2, with a different image of Montreal....part of the inspirations that occured to me as we were on vacation.
I lived in Montreal for 8 years.
A stunning mix of poetry and image.
Your vision is visionary.
always scarring the future..........
Copyright © Jan. 19, 2008 Rose Traver
Thanks for sharing this Kathryn 10!
I lived in st. henri where the kidnapping and killing of Pierre Laporte took place, I remember the curfew to be off the streets and night, I remember the canadian military driving by in their geeps,
the other minister was not a quebec minister, he was british trade minister James Cross.
Regina, thank you very much....
thanks, Angela.
Thanks for all of your articles and feedback!
Bravo!
I am featuring this in the Chat & Connections Garden Cafe.
I like Montreal a lot - I've visited three times - but not since the 1980s.
Magi, Thank you very much, my good man...I had been thinking for awhile of constructs for the composite photos I have done and I was so inspired today.
Then Levesque was made Premier some years later and Dorchester Avenue was renamed Avenue Rene Levesque.
Beautiful work, Kathryn!
Minnie, thank you, my dear.
WwW.SparkleTags.Com
I, too, remember the fear and uncertaintly of the October Crisis. I was only 11 years old at the time. The image of gun-toting soldiers on the streets of Montreal was shocking to me. I won't soon forget it.
This piece of yours has depth, feeling, intensity, the pacing of a slow mo bloodless novel from a Don De Lillo novel, the full stab wound impact of a trauma never healed, especially when we are all bystanders and can do nothing, nothing to prevent it.
Powerful and moving work. I love your full awareness of the history of terrorism, the fact that it has been around for awhile, back to Bakunin, even.
I recommend a book I´m currently scanning madly, The Future of Terror, A 21st Century Handbook, by Frank Barnaby. Granta Books, London. 2007
Am glad this got your creative juices flowing...I have number 2 written and will post soon and perhaps more..we will see...
Montreal is my soul.
For me, Cohen is Montreal.
Excellent imaging as well. Sometime- I will take the effort to listen to that particular song.
Wolfgang
Thank you Karyn.
Christine, thanks for enjoying.