—on a southern train
—on a midnight train
—(over and over again)
—on a jet plane
done
making tracks
making a break for it
on the lam
calling it a day
blowing the joint
heading for the hills
pulling up stakes
hanging up the fiddle
throwing in the towel
hoisting the blue peter
lighting out for the country
beating a retreat
hitting the road
striking a blow for freedom
getting lost
shoving off
taking off toddling off trotting off
taking a powder
taking wing
taking to my heels
decamping
hightailing it
weighing anchor
skedaddling
splitting
—off to the wild blue yonder
♦
Toronto poet and essayist Maureen Scott Harris has published three poetry collections. Drowning Lessons (Pedlar Press, 2004) was awarded the 2005 Trillium Book Award for Poetry; Slow Curve Out (Pedlar Press, 2012), was shortlisted for the League of Canadian Poets’ Pat Lowther Award. Harris’s essays have won the Prairie Fire Creative Nonfiction Prize, and the WildCare Tasmania Nature Writing Prize, which included a residency at Lake St. Clair, Tasmania. In 2012-2013 she was Artist-in-Residence at the Koffler Scientific Reserve at Jokers Hill, north of Toronto. Since 2012 she has worked with Helen Mills of Lost Rivers Toronto, designing poetry walks that follow the city’s (sometimes buried) rivers and streams. Waters Remembered, a chapbook, will be published by paperplates in Spring 2016.
♦♦♦
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