More Epicac*, Anyone?

It's getting worse!!!

well, that's a little presumptuous.



...maybe it's just me
that's getting worse.

    ... but i swear it's no lie when i say
"i cannot even bear to look at the screen
anymore when the prime minister
of my country is on TV".

...just the thought of his voice
makes me tremble for the mute.

     ...if i actually hear his voice
- a few words, a semi-denial, half an STFU -
i have to leave the room and take a long walk,
with some old song turned up as loud
in the earbuds as my fear of tinnitus will allow.

***

He's done the impossible!

there was a time when i felt
that the worst point in Canadian history
was September 17, 1984,
to June 25, 1993.

books about that era have upset me
so much i have not been able
to finish reading them.


the only other time in my life that this happened?
it was a book about contemporary
global traffic in human body parts.

i'm serious.


pre-Harper, i thought the Airbus scandal
was a joke. chump change.
a time waster.
if i'd been prosecuting,
PM 18 would have been charged
with treason.

more evidence.

stiffer penalties.

wicked optics.



...but Steve's a game-changer.
the Stever has caused me to to re-evaluate
the last (sic) Progressive Conservative government and it's fearless leader.
and the result?

a retro-spectual upgrade.





***




now the waste, the greasy palms,
brazen brown-nosing and cynicism
of those years seem like a half-remembered
dream of a kinder, better Canada.

a maple-tinted memory.








Happy Days on snowshoes.





Steven Harper makes
Brian Mulroney look like
the Friendly Giant.

and i'm not dissing Friendly.

***

i could cope with it as long as Michaëlle Jean
was also representing Canada to the  world.








but now that it's all Steve, all the time,
i feel like i've got an epicac OD going on.

i used to be proud to say "i'm from Canada".
now, i'd just as soon not say where i'm from...

i don't have an explanation for anyone
about what's happened to my country.


i don't have an explanation for myself
about why i haven't done more about it.

 - tbc -

* Epicac - Syrup of ipecac (pronounced /ˈɪpɨkæk/), commonly referred to as ipecac, is derived from the dried rhizome and roots of the ipecacuanha plant, and is a well known emetic (substance used to induce vomiting).


Emetic - An emetic, such as syrup of ipecac, is a substance that induces vomiting when administered orally or by injection.

 

Ipecacuanha  from the Tupi i-pe-kaa-guéne, which translates to "road-side sick-making plant".

.