In the summer of 1985,
\nmy parents bought me
\nmy first place ticket.<\/p>\n
That ticket
\nbrought me
\nout of the prairies,
\nfrom Regina
\nto Ottawa.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d just graduated
\nfrom high school.
\nMy father?
\nAlready here,
\nas his job required.<\/p>\n
The rest
\n\u2013 mother, siblings, dog \u2013
\nyet to join us.<\/p>\n
Thirty years.
\nSo much change.<\/p>\n
A patchwork,
\nCities, townships, villages,
\nAll scattered parts of
\nOne Regional Municipality.
\nLibraries, fragmented.
\nPolicing, fragmented.
\nWaste disposal, fragmented.
\nTransit, united.<\/p>\n
Transitway,
\nTwo or three years young.
\nStill building stations,
\nTunnels, roadbeds
\nStill underway.
\nTrains, still long ways
\naway from returning
\nto the transit mix.<\/p>\n
Shopping malls, smaller
\nMostly indoor experiences.
\nMalls of boxes
\nWith only parking lots
\nTo connect them
\nJust barely on our horizons.<\/p>\n
At Lansdowne,
\nStill the Rough Riders,
\nA name still almost theft
\nTo my prairie ears.
\nNot yet Renegades,
\nNor Redblacks.
\nThe strife of coping
\nWith owners gone,
\nmad, yet to come.<\/p>\n
The 67\u2019s, ever constant.
\nThe Nationals long gone.
\nNew Senators not yet
\nAn idea, much less
\nSkating under Lansdowne
\nThemselves.<\/p>\n
Smaller airport.
\nRockcliffe still military
\nAnd vital, not
\nThat hibernating field
\nYet to be reborn.<\/p>\n
Orl\u00e9ans still a town
\nDivided \u2018gainst itself
\nBy old Gloucester
\nAnd Cumberland.<\/p>\n
Nepean, ever boasting
\nOf balanced books
\nAnd being Ottawa\u2019s
\nBirthplace of yore.
\nKanata, yet a fortress
\nTo the west.<\/p>\n
Amalgamation
\nNot yet an idea in
\nMinds of Queens\u2019 Park.<\/p>\n
So much change,
\nYet some constants.
\nOttawa the city,
\nStill also
\nOttawa, shorthand
\nFor the federal
\nGovernment
\nEver present.<\/p>\n
Still, also, our homes
\nBuilt on land
\nAs yet unceded
\nBy Algonquin hands.<\/p>\n
Should they ever
\nBe ceded?
\nA question
\nAs yet unanswered
\nOfficially at least.<\/p>\n
Yet our homes,
\nAnd theirs as well,
\nStill they stand.
\nAs they must
\nOn the shores of
\nOttawa,
\nOnce called Kitchissippi,
\nAnd both tributaries:
\nRideau, and Gatineau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"