Sylvie Hill

Montreal (let me count the rooftop potted plants.)

Tonight I’m watching the planes cruise the sky
like sharks gliding in an upside-down dive.
Over there, overhead they’d be near Jean Talon Market
And here in Plateau Mont-Royal you see them in the distance.

Tonight, I’m watching the clouds hang by
Like exquisite canvases of paintings from trained eyes
And mountains mirroring Pont Jacques Cartier in peaks
And lower down, closer, all the spiral staircases and trees.

Tonight, I’m the most happiest of all!
I saw an attractive man’s hairy muscular legs in Converse at the store.
And it was enough I looked back to check out his ass
And I would rather not be on Tinder, let me count the rooftop potted plants.

Tonight, I’m watching life from above the Rue Saint Hubert
And I can hear the traffic driving on Sherbrooke one block over.
And I’m filled with gratefulness at having all my senses clear.
And to find the utmost beauty in life’s TV scenes out here.

And tonight I watch the planes cruise the sky
Like sharks gliding in an upside-down dive.
And the serenity in the Big City feels we feel up here on balconies
Is like front-row centre in a grandstand of such a precious theatre-comedy.

It is laughable how exhausted we become doing things for which we’re incompetent.
It is silly how we waste our potentials and our energies instead of improvement.
It is comedic how we stew in disgrace for a little piece of cock or heart.
It is most hilarious that we gave ourselves to people for whom we didn’t matter at all.

And tonight I watch the planes cruise the sky
Like sharks gliding in an upside-down dive
And we’re made of stars I think
And we come from the ocean I surmise,

And I belong to this City of Montreal for now, I believe,
And doesn’t she ever make me smile…

Sylvie Hill, Montreal, July 29, 2019