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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Writing Vancouver – Oceanic

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Image courtesy of Sean Orr.

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Oceanic
SEAN ORR

They travel in packs of beige and slate

Long coats, black umbrellas, suede bags

Looking for lunch

In them, is a sense of geology

Hardened stone

Pressed for time. Everything ironed out.


They work in andesitic columns.

Think huge lobbies with intricate moulding

Possibly an Art Deco mural, or Futurist perhaps

For them, it’s all stratified and coded.

Ancient coal seams. For peat’s sake.

And now we’re trading bitumen.

Float planes to the north

Never thought mining would pay off

Now the detritus piles up like scree

Spreading thin and red across the north

Like an alluvial fan.

Making  deposits.

Thin lips and strips of yellow paper

Blueprints for a better tomorrow

Green and sustainable

Their eyes light up like gas lamps

Prospectors of the outer limits of growth

Pushing on. Ever forward.

A new place for energy

A new energy for this place

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Sean Orr is the writer of Tea and Two Slices on Scout Magazine (formerly Morning Brew on Beyond Robson), musician under the name Tassels, and self-taught street-photographer with nearly 10, 000 works on Flickr. I also have a ridiculous tumblr called Don’t Dad that the kids all seem to enjoy. My Twitter account is just sort of okay. I ran in the 2006 Provincial Election as a Green Party candidate. I’m not exactly sure why. I’ve been published in a bunch of publications and I’ve had art shows at all the really cool underground galleries. I have a mental illness. I also have a cat named Gustav and a tattoo that says “tattoo”. Ok bye.

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