{"id":25315,"date":"2016-08-13T21:55:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-14T01:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=25315"},"modified":"2016-08-13T21:55:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-14T01:55:18","slug":"ode-to-rita-joe-companion-to-the-persona-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/ode-to-rita-joe-companion-to-the-persona-poem\/","title":{"rendered":"Ode to Rita Joe – companion to the persona poem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ode to Rita Joe <\/em>\u00a0(companion piece to the persona poem)<\/p>\n

I saw her everyday<\/p>\n

for months<\/p>\n

sleeping in the doorway<\/p>\n

ten steps from the<\/p>\n

Army and Navy<\/p>\n

on East Hastings \u2013<\/p>\n

the DTES<\/p>\n

Downtown<\/p>\n

East<\/p>\n

Side \u2013<\/p>\n

death warrant,<\/p>\n

execution certificate for<\/p>\n

anyone living there \u2013<\/p>\n

especially<\/p>\n

women and girls.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first time I approached her<\/p>\n

to<\/p>\n

hand her a five<\/p>\n

she<\/p>\n

screamed at me:<\/p>\n

WHAT THE FUCK YOU LOOKIN\u2019 AT?!<\/p>\n

I looked at my feet<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

said I was sorry,<\/p>\n

I<\/p>\n

just wanted to<\/p>\n

help her out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She had a great smile,<\/p>\n

in spite of the<\/p>\n

broken,<\/p>\n

blackened<\/p>\n

teeth and<\/p>\n

eventually<\/p>\n

showed it to me more<\/p>\n

often than she yelled at me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

People would spit at her,<\/p>\n

you know,<\/p>\n

and once, even<\/p>\n

a car load of<\/p>\n

frat assholes from<\/p>\n

UBC<\/p>\n

threw a Gatorade bottle<\/p>\n

of piss at her.<\/p>\n

She hissed<\/p>\n

and spat<\/p>\n

like an alley cat<\/p>\n

but<\/p>\n

her eyes<\/p>\n

gave her soul away \u2013<\/p>\n

you could read<\/p>\n

every chapter<\/p>\n

and verse<\/p>\n

of the rape<\/p>\n

and the abuse \u2013<\/p>\n

her eyes<\/p>\n

made her look dead<\/p>\n

inside.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But,<\/p>\n

one night,<\/p>\n

in my truck \u2013<\/p>\n

she was high,<\/p>\n

I was drunk \u2013<\/p>\n

she told me how<\/p>\n

she wanted to fly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

She hated the mountains,<\/p>\n

said they reminded her of jail \u2013<\/p>\n

and she \u201cfucking hated jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

She wanted to be<\/p>\n

on the Prairie to see<\/p>\n

the sunset<\/p>\n

on all the horizons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But it happened \u2013<\/p>\n

as it always happens \u2013<\/p>\n

on the DTES:<\/p>\n

the<\/p>\n

Downtown<\/p>\n

East<\/p>\n

Side \u2013<\/p>\n

I walked past her stoop<\/p>\n

every day,<\/p>\n

for weeks,<\/p>\n

but she was no where to be seen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I asked around,<\/p>\n

at the places she\u2019d<\/p>\n

haunt<\/p>\n

but no one had<\/p>\n

seen her for weeks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been nearly a year<\/p>\n

and I haven\u2019t<\/p>\n

seen her \u2013<\/p>\n

or heard<\/p>\n

where she’s at.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to think<\/p>\n

that<\/p>\n

she\u2019s on the<\/p>\n

red path<\/p>\n

back to the<\/p>\n

endless sunsets.<\/p>\n

(c) R. L. Elke 2016<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ode to Rita Joe \u00a0(companion piece to the persona poem) I saw her everyday for months sleeping in the doorway ten steps from the Army and Navy on East Hastings \u2013 the DTES Downtown East Side \u2013 death warrant, execution certificate for anyone living there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":712,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25326,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25315\/revisions\/25326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}