InArms A project for the Edmonton Poetry Festival

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Poem of the Week

Go And See Vancouver

June 28, 2010

There’s still a Canada, but not for us.
Halifax still shines but it’s not ours,
Ownership ends at the muddy grave.
Dead clocks rest still, there are no living hours
Banked and waiting for us bloodied brave.
We know the purple lilacs have just bloomed
But they are not for us to smell again –
We’ll never re-see places where we’ve been.
And though more life was something we assumed
Would be ours, so we all thought we would win.
Regina’s summer days can’t thrill dead hearts,
And though we know that hearts are being thrilled
There is no jealousy or peace for us,
Emotions can’t be picked up once they’re spilled.
It’s true your nation wears an awful scar
From cuts made deep in bloody Kandahar,
But Ottawa is still intact to see,
And Edmonton knows no insurgency.
So go and see Vancouver you who live
And have no remorse, there’s nothing to forgive.
We ask not for your grief or gratitude
Or constant tribute of sad memories.
Blood will in conflicts be forever shed
So accept we were alive and now are dead.

By Quentin Mullin

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About this Page

This page contains a single poem called “Go And See Vancouver”, written by Quentin Mullin. It was posted here on June 28, 2010 as a Poem of the Week. From here, you can navigate to older and newer poems (take a look just below the poem on this page), or you can see the complete list of poems.

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