I walk the (picket) line: haibun

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) strike has now lasted a month. Coincidentally we’re entering the twelve days of Christmas. Long gone are hopes of getting my traditional batch of Solstice cards mailed on time. For several decades these cards have been my way of keeping the barest of contacts with friends left behind on my too many moves. If you are one of the annual recipients, well, Season’s Best!   . . . and now you don’t have to send me a “guilt” card in return ;  )-  

Two weeks ago I began joining the small band of CUPW picketers at the Marmora Post Office. Union members decided it makes sense to focus on a central and high exposure location - highways  #7 and #14 intersect by our post office, while the P.O.s in Tweed and Stirling are hidden off their main drags.           

old man

with walking stick

hobbling the picket line   

walking stick

waves to honking cars 

young picketer

rests in a snow bank

old picketer

blows smoke

into freezing drizzle

stranger’s passenger seat

carries a tray

of Timmy’s coffee 

Yesterday, Friday the 13th, after a month of picketing in the cold:

binding arbitration!

woman collapses

in the snow

Crows over Marmora Mine (a political haibun)

Today's hike with my little dog Chase was on one of our favourite trails, a section of the Trans-Canada Trail which passes the site of the Marmora mine. The hike begins with marsh on both sides of the trail, but soon slag heaps from the old iron mine come into view. After half an hour of sunny late October hiking, huge rocky heaps rise on both sides from millennial swamp. Three crows are hunting over the haunted mesa-like heap to the east:

crows skrawing overhead
thankful I'm not a mouse!
 
These black hunters screech horribly, floating on air currents, intent on flushing small scared creatures from their hidey-holes. Mice and voles bolt in terror when these small 'black riders' fly. I imagine their screeches amplified 100 times - 1,000 times - my little dog and I too would panic bolt.

The crows hunt continues,  crossing the trail to hunt the mine site. The giant blue water eye of the mine, gouged for our iron age hungers, is occluded. After the iron was ripped out, the huge hole lay dormant. A greedy corporation decided to fill the hole with garbage from Toronto - I'm not making this up. There are cracks and deep fractures, underground streams which run from here to Belleville and into the Bay of Quinte and Lake Ontario. The people of our nearby village opposed the black crow lawyers of GreedCoInc and this crazy scheme was squashed.

A new mine scheme has recently arisen, complete with its flock of black crow lawyers. Now it's 'pumped storage' - another scam scheme to enrich another GreedCoInc while endangering the rural villagers. This time the villagers are slower to awaken to the danger. It's never fun being David facing Goliath.

lawyers circle
hoping to flush
the truth away
 
This morning on CBC radio I sadly heard a woman's story of setting her tap water on fire. Fracking!  Another evil story in the reign of our current King, 'Sauron' Stephen Harper. I could hear the brave shakiness in her voice for taking on GreedCoInc - the larger the feast, the bigger the black riders.

Crows become vultures
blackening the skies  
over Marmora minesite