I pulled my Oldsmobile into the small dirt parking lot. I would come here often when I wanted to feel lighter, happier. The parking lot was reached by a very potholed dirt road running off of fourteenth street in Calgary’s northwest. The parking lot overlooked the district of Huntington Hills where I had lived aeons…
Here is what I wrote in my diary July 20, 2010. I have been in severe pain every day since i came back from the mountains 3 weeks ago. Basically the pain starts at 2 or 3 in the morning and goes for 12 to 14 hours. I’m not sure how long I can sit…
I was wandering around the Calgary Zoo. I hoped that the visit would cheer me. I started my zoo day, as I usually did, with a visit to the tigers. They weren’t out today. So I wandered down to see the elephants1. I got lucky. Their keepers were putting the elephants through their paces. Kamala…
The Death Spiral It was a woodframe building capped with a green metal roof. A solar panel was mounted on the south facing section of the roof. The large windows at the front and sides of the building were framed with 6 inch wide pine boards. Below the windows the wall was studded with randomly…
Acknowlegements First and foremost I want to thank my family: Joyce for her medical knowledge and training which so helped the rest of the family, for her daily visits to the ICU, and for dealing with my three suicide attempts with equanimity; Tafline and Matt for their visits to me in the hospital, for their…
Chuck was keen to treat the patient but the fire crew couldn’t get the patient out of the car because his legs were trapped under the front seat. The fire crew pryed open the driver’s door with the Jaws of Life and within minutes the driver was strapped to a spinal board and bundled into…
EMS to the Rescue The driver of the Ford F150 stared in disbelief1. The powder blue Olds she had been taiiling had just executed a lighting fast lane change. Into the empty bus lane. And, rocketed straight into the concrete sound barrier marking the end of the bus lane. The brake lights never came on….
Prologue Death was calling him. He remembers her most recent call. May 1, 2010. He had just moved into his apartment. Beginning a new life. Alone. Hopeful. Joyous. Then it all turned to shit. Somewhere around noon. The witching hour. His mood dropped. Crashed. Plummeted. Lower than a salamaner’s belly. Lower than a cockroach’s. Lower…
The first stanza of my 1987 poem, CHANGES, is: Stability Never an option. Possibilities the name of the game.
The Messenger His name was David. He was a distinguished looking man in his forties, always well dressed with a regal bearing in spite of his disability. He was likely taller than me but I would never know that. For that first time I met him he was confined to an electric wheelchair. I never…
