Editor's Note: Each day from December 1 -21, Halifax' poet laureate Sue Goyette will write a new poem to share with the city on The Coast's website and social media. "If I need this, I bet other people need this," she told us on day one—and we think she's right. In a year that's felt like a months-long dusk, this will be some light we can carry forward, together, until the days begin to grow again.
Here is her poem for December 8:
Here is her poem for December 8:
“The maid did not clean my room the second day left the garbage cans full. The entire floor smelled like weed. The hotel staff said sorry and did nothing to compensate for several problems.” Remember the easy days of the 2019 complaint? “The breakfast was very basic and repetitive and unhealthy, canned beans, scrambled eggs, and ham, canned fruit every day. No cheese, no cut up fruits and veggies and no variety. Oh the potatoes were good. Some days had full banana and apples. By the 3rd day we were dreading breakfast.” Time, eh? Have you heard of the villagers that staged a variety of small dramas in each field the train passed in Germany's Saale Valley worried passengers would find their region boring? If the train is time, and we’re villagers setting up the wooden planks in fields, let’s name thinking of the passengers as a kindness akin to lining up at the taco restaurant in town having a rough time. The full bananas; the canned beans. A princess hologram crouched and talking fast to future kindness: 'you are our only hope' on repeat.