arts showcase
Carrie Haber
The Flight Of Jeffrey Midtown to the Bronx
The flight of Jeffrey Midtown to the Bronx
I am a refugee to that field of butterflies.
To that valley for cover
From a red social temperature
I wash my hands in the clover
Deep in the purse of the pasture
Whose coins are alive and suck sugar from flowers
I am a butterfly to that field of refugees.
To that stumped-up republic,
I flicker down the hillside grazing powder spots
Across grasses of folks
That mill in the sun and take notes
About futures in water and hedges in boats
And there I am cooled by all the ablutions
And raisins and vinegar
And arranged wedding showers
Where I come from we're no good at futures
Or conversations or even note-taking
Just work and bygones and our swell Hallmark natures
For our paddock of daughters and their ever-afters
For our promising sons and their pigeonshot laughter
For the cans on the fence
For the doorbells of happenstance
For the Starbucks when we get to Providence.
What does your work depict?
Jeffrey Midtown, so unfortunately bored with his [canadiantown] upbringing, is barreling down to the Bronx for some imagined fulfillment, which he is never going to get. That is the one hard knock of coming from where he does.
What is it about?
This is a lyric about the “inside” and “outside” of Canadiana. The wide myth, the glowy ‘CBC portrait’ of Canadian culture, that seems to fertilize a positively distorted world view that we are exemplary citizens of the world, is called into question as it leaves so many little aliens behind – e.g. Jeffrey. Some of the poorest, fledgling populations here have intricate, private, ironclad legacies that support their communities, families, and each individual – and are therefore succesful societies within the larger, dysfunctional framework.
- published
Nth Position, UK
- copyright
2006 Carrie Haber
works by this artist
