Saturday Scribes, July 5

Driving down Warden

There’s landscape anywhere
Isn’t there?
Maybe not beautiful impressionist landscapes
Haystacks and peasants
Fields of mustard and golden sunsets

Driving down Warden
What do I see?
A landscape?
A skyscape?
Something?
Why can’t I
Remember?

Glimpses, memories come back to me...
The Shoe Company
No banks
Winners
The Salvation Army.

I’ve driven this route 3 times
This week
And I can remember
Almost nothing.

I’ll try again.

I’ll imagine I’m Picasso,
experiencing my blue period.
A BLUE Tim Horton’s complete with
BLUE drive-through
A BLUE path to a CV HIGHSCHOOL with
huge BLUE roadbumps

Sorry. It doesn’t work.
Tim Horton’s signage
(what an ugly new word)
cannot be imagined as BLUE
What colour is it, red? white?
I thought the sign was indelibly
imprinted on my brain,
But I suppose it is as impermanent as
The rest of existence.
As impermanent as a strawberry ice cream cone
Lying out on the concrete
On Warden Avenue.

I remember something now
A feeling of familiarity
Driving down Warden
Driving down certain streets in Ajax
Wide streets
Apartment buildings on the left
Arenas on the right

Hard to imagine actually trying to
Walk down these long streets
They’re not meant for walking
These long streets are not
Particularly Car friendly, either.
Too busy. Too hot.
Shoes and Tires
Rubbing Concrete

The thought makes me tired out.

Is development the culprit?
Excess development?
Should we blow the whistle?
Stop it all right now?

Driving down Warden Avenue
I finally reach my destination
Or do I?
Which is more important -
Arrival or the journey?
The glimpses of insight
We gain as we drive
Past mega store after mega store?

Maybe I need to go shopping?
I think I could use a few things......