Canada? Boring? What If? by Charlie Rossiter

Doubtful Insight, by Greg Curnoe (Canada) 1987.

Canada?   Boring?   What If?

The artist asks
“What if daily life in Canada is boring?”
an impossible question,
it’s too complex, and so
to parse it I ask myself
“if I were a province,
which one would I be?”

Alberta comes to mind.
I’m thinking mountains and
nature when I say that, not
oil fields and pipe line conservatives.
The same way I envision
Yellowstone grizzlies and bull moose,
not gun-toting white supremacists
when I think of Wyoming.

Then again there are
the coastal provinces,
and I’m big on the ocean.
I could be a mix
of big city BC -- Vancouver
and laid back little Nova Scotia.

But back to the question
Canada?   Boring?   What if?

It’s too much.

My big city friends wonder
if daily life is boring where I live
here in small town Vermont. 
I could tell them, but that wouldn’t be
the answer. When it comes to
big questions the only answers
that count are those you find out
on your own.

Charlie Rossiter

This poem was written for the Surprise Challenge, ekphrastic poetry about Canadian paintings.

Charlie Rossiter's popular poetry podcast can be heard on the first and third Fridays of every month.
http://www.poetryspokenhere.com/ 

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