Weather Witch

            On Monday I filled out my income report and rode down the street to mail it to Ontario Works.

            There was a plethora of panhandlers in the area throughout the daylight hours. In front of Coffeetime was the same loud indigenous woman with her friend, plus a guy all sitting side by side with a sign. Across the street in front of the Dollarama sitting side by side were two more. I got the impression all five were working together to pool their funds later on for perhaps a bottle or more.

            I had tamari almonds for lunch but this time I put my denture in to keep sharp pieces of nut from going to the gap and poking my gum.

            Most of the day was spent studying for Wednesday’s Romantic Literature exam. I re-read all of my notes on Percy Shelley and wrote some comparisons between him and Keats and between him and Byron. A lot can be said about both the differences and the similarities between Shelley and Keats. It’s interesting that Shelley liked both Byron and Keats but they didn’t like each other’s poetry.

            I took a break and fiddled around with a poem for a few minutes:

The sky grins, wearing a retainer of clouds

The sun glints off crystals in the asphalt

I steer tires to dodge what seems a glass assault

The same serpentine tree branch slaps my shoulder loud

I see a big tree with apples dropping in a crowd

over a fence into a park

past the domain of its back yard

Some of the apples are turning red

I stop there to pick quite a few

and some drop round me as I do

I just take ones that have fallen

as they’re ripe and ready for chomping

I had felt like garbage all through the day

And thought that it might be food poisoning

But I’ve just been eating rice through the week

Which wouldn’t really make me feel that way

But whatever the reason I had a headache

On the lake clouds are grey and bevelled

And wood smoke and mowed grass can be smelled

The sky to the west is wrapped in dark strips

That in slanted rays let light through

Like beams from a picture Bible

presenting illustrations

Depicting heavenly revelations

            I boiled two potatoes for dinner and had them with margarine and watched The Rifleman. Halfway through the show I finished off some hummus and plantain chips that I hadn’t finished the day before.

            In this story there is a drought and many of the ranchers are considering giving up. Two railroad promoters named Mathers and Evans show up to recruit workers at $3 a day for a year and a lot of the men are tempted. Meanwhile an old man named Epps who claims to be a weather witch arrives in town and says that he can find water with his witching stick. Whether he can or not Evans sees Epps as someone that is keeping the ranchers from taking their deal. He drags Epps into an alley and begins to beat and threaten him until Lucas stops him. The local ranchers agree to give Epps a chance. Meanwhile for his protection Lucas lets Epps stay at his place. That night Evans tries to kill Epps and so Lucas is forced to kill Evans. The next day on the property of one of the ranchers, Epps walks all around with his stick but nothing happens until suddenly the stick begins to tremble and Epps falls to his knees with the stick pointed at the sky. Suddenly it begins to rain.