O Calgary
By Tom Wayman
In Calgary
I saw a man break a dog’s back.
—Joseph Stroud, “Calligraphy”
i
In Calgary
I saw a man marry money
Who giveth this money?
the commissioner asked
The man said
Everyone who works for me
The commissioner asked
Where are they? I don’t hear them declare it
The man said That’s not their job
You do yours
Do you take this money
the commissioner asked
to have and to hold
till death do you part?
The man replied
Even longer
The commissioner said
Money, do you take this man
et cetera?
Money said nothing
but the man said It’s my money
Our opinions are identical
In that case
the commissioner said
I hereby pronounce you one flesh
You heard the commissioner
the man said
What authority has joined together
let nobody dare separate
Got that?
All of us, including money
were silent
ii
In Calgary
I saw the toe of a cowboy boot
rupture the spleen of a man begging
iii
In Calgary
I heard a man praise his snow machine
how he and his friends like to have a few
then compete who can steer their Ski-Doo
farthest up their piles of money
—high-marking, they call it
the sled almost vertical
so the man, drunk, stands up on the footrests
as he climbs
Fuck yes, it’s dangerous
Two or three machines a month
trigger at the apex
a vast roaring slab of money
that descends with the consistency
of cement, impossible to outrun
entombing the perpetrator
Dumb fuck should have been more careful
iv
In Calgary
I saw a man fire another man
by inviting him to a conference room
where an employee from HR waited
with severance paperwork and a payment
along with someone from security
to escort immediately out of the building
the man whose livelihood
had just been stripped
We don’t want no trouble
v
In Calgary
I watched money overflow the banks along the Bow
sweeping hundreds of replicas of the same ample house
out onto wheat fields
surrounding the city
Saw the flood pour into downtown streets
office towers, machine shops
oil well equipment yards
sending the inhabitants scrambling
to survive
Dog eat dog and I’m hungry
I watched the current surge into libraries
galleries, museums
to jumble, bury under debris
permanently stain
I saw couples in a bar
trying to two-step
slipping and stumbling into each other
due to the money pooled
on the floor
vi
In Calgary
during a Wild West wagon race
I saw a horse sprawl to the ground
heard the snap: leg broke
the animal finished
in Calgary
vii
And I heard a woman sobbing
how money had always been
her family’s friend
provided heat and light
consoling, comforting until
suddenly it behaved as if envious
of the little they had: ATV
wakeboarding boat
and trailer, dually
the Lexus
—each as if transformed to dust
or ash
she gasped as she wept
Money now hates us
took the new smartphones
bought each year, the son’s
Xbox and PlayStation
the daughter’s charter of a
party limo for her birthday
Christmases in Hawai’i
vacation condo in Mesa
Arizona
for no reason
Money hates our
way of life, wants to destroy
our freedom
Yours, too she sniffled
You have to help us
Source: Poetry (June 2019)