Abandoned suitcase, Broadview Avenue

[This little scrap of memory surfaced recently. It is the first I have that’s linked to my idea that I’m awkward with children and lack parenting instincts.]

Left Behind

As I so often do, I remember exactly what I was wearing: periwinkle blue corduroy knickers and a chenille sweater with broad periwinkle, cream, and navy stripes. My tights were off-white ...
Continue reading ...

Garden rocks on Gore Vale Avenue, near Trinity Bellwoods Park

Between Stops

He is standing just to the right of the doors as she enters the stuffed subway car at Bathurst, his left arm raised, fingers wound round the bar overhead. She squeezes past him and lifts her legs over the knees and bulging Canadian Tire bags belonging to the passenger in the ...
Continue reading ...

Water main detritus on Allen Avenue, South Riverdale

Purple

I am riding the 506 streetcar along College Street in mid-June humidity. Through the open windows the afternoon air looks milky, and as I reach out to run the tip of my index finger across a patch of the vehicle’s tomato-red hull, I half expect the see a translucent white film clinging to the ...
Continue reading ...

Utility pole with staple and paper fragment, Broadview Avenue

I admit to stealing the format for this post from Sarah Brown, but I’ve had this photo hanging around in my “Images to Post” folder for months, and while flipping through a couple of my journals I found some sentence fragments scribbled in the margins and across the tops ...
Continue reading ...