Allan Gardens, 1994
19 Horticultural Avenue

He disliked Daniel's fiction and I disagreed.
He told me a photograph
of the two of them together
had fallen from a book
the week before he died,
which troubled him.
At the S/M store I tried on a vinyl skirt
and he told the salesperson he was my father.

Black Bull
298 Queen Street West

I first met Steve Goof and wore all of his rings,
dragon's skull and silver urchins,
while he chalked his cue and swept off his coat.

Cameron House
408 Queen Street West

These Are the Killed

(By them)

Handsome Ned smiles easily in Stetson,
silver-tipped collar and boots,
Slips smack into the darkness and

These Are The Killed

(By me)

Katie with the heel of a shoe
(in self-defence)
And Penny: a necklace of bloodstones,
Fire-lasso.

Danforth
390 Danforth Avenue

eight trips to the Danforth
for black olives, feta cheese, the Virgin Mary
in a circle of red and gold,

Elvis Monday (1983-) Haiku
240 Queen Street West

Beverly Tavern,
The Silver Dollar Room, The
Apocalypse, The

Fort Goof (1985-91)
191 Baldwin

They told me he was bad, but I knew he was sad,
I'll never forget him - the leader of the pack
- The Shangri-las

Gladstone Hotel (1985)
1214 Queen Street West

He is wearing a gold lame jacket with unfinished edges, black slacks.
Looks nothing like Elvis but we dance on the chairs as he sings.

Huron Street (1986-90)
215 Huron Street

I am writing while Steve becomes more absorbed in his projects: lining
Up superhero figures in action poses, underlining entries in the TV Guide
(we have no television), writing lyrics he will not perform for eight years

Isabella (+ Yonge) 1982
670 Yonge Street

I have dreaded this, moving to Toronto.

She shows me around, we visit the Gasworks and she shakes her long hair, listening to the cover band

I am a punk with two inches of spiked hair, a fish out of water.

James Joyce Pub (1996)
386 Bloor Street West

a girl loveable in the extreme.
- Ulysses

we find an abandoned grocery cart and push Michael fast and let go
O tragic dyinglooking his ankle twisted not letting him go but her eyes
meeting mine like 2 big poppies shadows I suppose of nights

Kensington Market (Summer 1987)
56 Kensington Avenue

There is the sound of breaking glass, Carol and I see clothes
drift from a window, inspirited -
ghosts; a junkie is tossing his girlfriend's dresses

Lansdowne and Bloor (1984-86)
1313 Bloor Street West

i think of lansdowne, moving in gunshots that night, the stripclub i liked.
where a girl left her fur coat with her sister & peeled off her spangled bikini

Ministry of Love (1983-1984)
10 Claremont Street

In the bathroom someone has written Hope for Me I Hope for You

Niagara Falls (1994)
4950 Clifton Hill

In August we head out four or five of us with overnight bags
bathing suit daywear a good evening gown bottles of gin and vodka
Names we call ourselves Marilyn Taffy Venus Penny Dreadful Sparklett

Ossington and Bloor (1995)
890 Bloor Street West

yeah - I dig his eyes attack'd by
farout green & black. His purple-lips & vest,
a trip: mirrors velvet disrepair

Petsitting (Kendal Avenue, 1988)
100 Kendal Avenue

I am petsitting two cats and a goldfish
hot August
hardwood floors 7 rooms a palace

Queen Street West (1150) 1992
1150 Queen Street West

Daniel and I have agreed to launch our books together: Obsessions
and Miss Pamela's Mercy. He wants a hardcore band to play and has
a formidable mailing list (I am sooo embarrassed to overhear Jim Smith
saying "who keeps putting me on fucking lists?").

Roncesvalles (Summer 1987)
150 Roncesvalles Avenue

see how they Fall each frothing crest by

Christ a palm A Finger

pointing into,

- Steven Heighton

Scream in High Park (July 19, 1993)
1873 Bloor Street West

I can hear snatches of Sky's work Wake me, beauty, For I am asleep from
behind the fence where I am waiting with bill bissett. The audience gives
him their hands, I see Hippolyta's crown shining as it is thrown to his feet,
rubies and sapphires tumbling, when I look up

Tall Bars (1986 - )
301 Front Street West

Sparkles (Top of the CN Tower)

Remember you will throw up on the way down.

Union Station (1983-84)
65 Front Street West

My hand draws back. I often sigh still
for the dark downward and vegetating kingdom
- Robert Lowell, "For the Union Dead"

Vive Karaoke (Kensington and Baldwin, 1993)
170 Baldwin

Ten Ban Nhac: "You Light Up My Life"

So many days: spent at the old Quoc Te. Formerly Peter's punks-drugs-
music clubhouse, now a karaoke bar - rumours of back alley garrotting,
gunshits. One night a Vietnamese gang gets close, is deflected by our
bracelets: sandalwood beads & glass Buddha. They sing for us instead
Now mothers tell your children, not to do what I have done.

Western Hospital (Bathurst and Dundas) 1989-
399 Bathurst Street

...when things decay, it's not a sign of something gone wrong - not in
nature's grand scheme of things. It's a sign that nature is reclaiming energy
and materials that seem to be no longer needed by higher organisms.
- Boyce Rensberger

Xtraordinaire (722 Queen Street West) 1994-96
722 Queen Street West

That glamour may be something else, walking slowly and painfully,
so there are no mistakes. The discomfort, the drag.
Of effacing yourself; the sublimation. Of recovering the grotesque.

Yyz
Somewhere West on Highway 401 towards Guelph

The highway yawns & we smooth-sail tap through
The Israelites like bonnies and clydes until the line seizes, stopping dead, a
crash

Zoo (Metropolitan Zoo, 1984)
2000 Meadowvale Road

I watched
a female gorilla. She stared at me through the plexiglass barrier as if
she hated me. Then threw up in her hand and ate it. Never breaking eye contact.

We quiver like chicken hinds...

Before the putrid ugliness, of everything we contain.