Middle-aged May Day

middle-aged May Day
I stain my backyard fence
RED!


 


I wrote this haiku after I bought my starter house in 1985
in Toronto's termite-infested east end. After years of
living the lifestyle of a committed leftist, I had done the
unthinkable and bought into the capitalist dream.

All my lefty friends friends had roundly criticized me for
doing such a thing, and almost to a person over the years,
each of them has quietly come up to me and thanked me
for showing them the way to the good life.

The haiku seems very obvious, requiring no explanation.
But this is Canada, & most Canucks are blissfully unaware
of International May Day & its world-wide significance.
After all, every Canuck IS middle-class, right? Celebrate
May Day?  Huh?

The funniest interpretation was published in a well-meaning
review. The reviewer assumed I was a typical self-absorbed
Canuck - that the haiku refers to a middle-age crisis (!) -
& that my realistic & ironic comment about spending May
Day staining my backyard fence, rather than
attending a May Day rally as in previous years, never
remotely occurred to them.

So 28 years further down the pipe, how am I spending
this May Day? Filling in government GAINS forms with
hopes of getting my meagre Old Age Security payments
upgraded to the Canadian poverty level    :  (

If I had a fence, I'd stain it bright red yet again!

peace & poetry power!
Chris Faiers
May Day 2013 
 

old fart
turning pink
in May Day sun

old age May Day
I beg bureaucrats
for survival

                    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Conrad DiDiodato has left a new comment on your post "Middle-aged May Day":

May Day--
Faiers turning RED
in the sun



Posted by Conrad DiDiodato to Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 1 May 2013 09:32 

                  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ed Baker has left a new comment on your post "Middle-aged May Day":

red fence
red pole
same dance

and
on May 5th
we can ALL
be Mexican

and get drunk
with cute girls



Posted by Ed Baker to Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 3 May 2013 04:26

                    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!