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the ghosts that haunt us
the ghosts that haunt us
canadian where are your gods?
Where have they gone?
to what land have they been
banished and
by whose hand?
where are the ghosts that
haunt abandoned homesteads
or occupy old buildings?
where are the
spirits who
linger in groves
and speak
through the gurgling brook or
wind in dry grass?
where are your gods of
thunder, wind and rain
whose wrath ravages
forest hill and plain,
disquiet and
displace,
and terrorise small children
with head hidden
under sheets?
where are your
demons
of hunger and desire
and
where the alters
to appease,
the prayers offered to
petition
spring rain and summer grow
early harvest and winter snow?
why are your ancestors
so silent round your
campfires, so latent
in your churches,
and absent from your
houses?
where is your
great chain of being
from small to great,
your tribes of deities
of love and hate,
assembled together,
in that great
wigwam in the
sky?
where that
final spectre
who lies in wait
and hunts the hunter
unwary at his gate
and mocks the
one broken
in the struggle
for survival
though unwary
of his fate?
