‘Montreal I love you but I have to leave’
Please enjoy this poem by Caroline.
It is not light-hearted but heavy,
As holey as your pavement and foggy as your winter suns
I go where you throw what’s yours away
Beyond the river, they drown,
Those who love you yet, so much.
I leave you my beautiful, but it is you who abandons me
You, who prefers the new, the most beautiful, the healthiest, the most salient
Ah! They court you, these gentlemen businessmen
Promise you a great day, a place of choice,
Cover you with pomp and flatter you,
Don't be mistaken Montreal, my beautiful,
But soon they'll sell you too
To the highest bidder and throw
The leftovers out with the bathwater,
As you now throw away what’s yours.
Montreal forever, it's your postcard we’ll remember,
None of your inhabitants, they’re just like the others,
But your mountain, but your river,
And everything that floats according to the St. Lawrence.
Soon, like your big sisters, you’ll be drained of your waters,
The ones who give you your colours and make your heartbeat.
Hold them back Montreal,
Like a mother
Who refuses to see her children
Grow up,
And leave.
Montreal, I love you, but I'm leaving you,
You, who doesn't want more of me than my brain, my hands
Gotta leave my soul somewhere else
Now
And look ahead, head down.
This article originally appeared in The Sidewalk Issue, published April 5, 2022.
