Terrorists commandeer a teleport hub and 600,000 off-worlders (OFFERS) from the mines deep inside a cold rocky planet materialize in New Churchill, Manitoba - a beach resort at the height of summer. The horde of OFFERS arrive armed with armloads of beach paraphernalia and psychedelic liqueurs.

i am memory
etched on tissue
flame and cold
code of conduct

i am accused
words and bone
blood run through
ages of pure grudge

I submit these few words because my present research is complete, though I am not entirely certain when this decision was made? It may have been when reading the headline: Spanish Boy Compensated For Being Born? Or maybe it was the article about Pinochet’s Caravan of Death? Lord only knows. Other headlines declared that Truth Is Optional and Doubts Linger Over Brutality. Imagine that. On a lighter note, I read Police Sweep City and tried to visualize that instead. Ha. Now I remember! It was the headline Destroying The Land For Amusement that did it. What a romantic, eh?

I am prototypical Canadian - with Scottish, Persian, Cree & Brit blood - and I have a difficult time with the notion that Canada became a nation because of the battle of Vimy Ridge; yes, the battle has become “a Canadian nationalistic symbol of achievement and sacrifice” - the battle of Gallipoli is seen in the same light by Australians and New Zealanders and commemorated on Anzac Day - but the idea that a people need to be baptized in blood to realize their identity is so freaking primitive.