... (IV)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpkUISUx3Lo&ab_channel=TheHalluciNation

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                I

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I see the shiner, plain as day: 

Jack Nicholson’s grinning bust

Broken through the door -

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Native, Snuneymuxw,

Probably - Coast Salish.

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She’s here with her boy.

The last girl with a black eye

Was here with her boyfriend.

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There are two others in the lobby,

They were all here two weeks ago

To visit a dying mother.

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There’s one with the black eye,

One with her auntie

And one that’s black out drunk

Trying to convince me that she’s sick

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So that I can expedite her into a hospital bed.

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                II

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It reminds me of the things I used to see as a child,

Arviat, Eskimo point - back when they used to weld

Iron bars against the windows

Of our elementary school - 

All under the pretense

Of keeping them from being broken.

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Little did they know

Those windows had been broken

Far before they’d even built the school.

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They can weld the bars, the girl can sober up, 

Hell, they can even replace the windows -  

But they were broken to begin with 

And no manner of facile placation 

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Is going to make that go away.

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