Since my folks still live in the same house I passed the teen years away in, the nostalgia factor is high when I visit london (the Canadian mid sized “forest city”, not the UK conglomerate). I flew there last week to visit my sis. I was 12 when we moved into the split level, and I was oh so happy to leave Toronto/Missisauga behind. I dreamt every night that I could be a cool kid in the new town, because no one knew who I was (bullied by boys & ignored by girls), and no one saw my old clothes. I even knew what shoes I wanted to wear when I arrived in the new neighborhood (converse hightops, one black, the other white).
Even if it was all down to pre-adolescent fantasy, the bullying had gotten out of hand that final year- i would skip days of school or get up and walk out of my eighth grade classroom when it got bad enough. The worst was when I got swarmed. I got out of it ok, because not one of those suburban kids was ready to cross that line as a group – there was always one kid, a linchpin, behind anything physical. One day, my dad and sister were driving in a mall parking lot, and my sister pointed out one of the linchpin kids – my old man stopped the car on the street, ran up to the kid, and threatened to find and kill him if he ever touched me again…
We lived in the older part of town, a bike ride out of reach of the industrial area in the south end. There is a scrap yard there, and someone has recently welded a collection of metal sculptures; they sit in the sky on poles as tall as street lights. In true london fashion, someone driving by screamed out their car window while I was snapping these shots. It’s an isolated lot, so I hurried the hell up.
As for my sis, she’s like this image snapped from the basement window.
Trapped within black screens. Everything is pixelated, so she can’t tell what is to come next, and the future is a mirage. If she breaks through (and she will), the brambles will make sure that any victory is seated in discomfort. But off in the distance – it’s blue out there – the grass is greener on the other side…
2010 by
2 Comments
Sad the funny thing i just got back from my dentist as I was walking in the street someone yieled (get your ass out of there)maybe he was yielled at the car who was in my way don’t know!!!!DARK days are ahead of us this picture represent to me all the dead fish on Louisianna’s shore…Thanks for your picture its a type of prophecy for me Sincerely Nancy
thx Nancy; the rusty fish in the sky is ominous, isn’t it…