oh, the characters I see in Montreal
just yesterday, I saw an old man with a top hat gaily riding his pink bicycle through the park, puffing on a cigar that hung from his mouth
I saw three adolescent boys blasting their boombox, dancing like idiots on some random stranger’s front stoop, basking in the strange looks given by people walking past
on that same trip, there was a man in a wheelchair, stopped on the sidewalk, looking forward, not moving. not even his eyes. I didn’t know what to say or do so I just walked past
it got dark out, and there was that tall hairless asian woman in the park, shrouded in black, walking around herself in small circles.. the same woman who mysteriously swooshed in and out of the blue dog motel that one night..
then on my way to class early this morning there was a kid in the sun with slicked back hair and he was whistling and smiling with a new box of converse in his arms and when I looked down he surely did have ragged shoes
right now, on the street corner that this café window gives me direct spying access to, there is this man refusing to stop kissing his girlfriend goodbye
all these characters, all this expression, everywhere I look-
I was on my way back from the supermarché and I was holding a 16 pack of blueberry waffles, nacho cheese dip, two PBRs and a new can of coffee…I was whistling, I almost tripped over my small feet…and when I looked up there was a guy walking his dog and he was smiling at me,
which makes me think, maybe I’m a character too
“Freud through Benjamin is contending that the external world is constantly threatening to over-stimulate us and that, instead of requiring more means of accessing the world, the body needs protectors, shields, to help block it out. The principle shield is consciousness, which protects the subconscious from suffering the after-effects of shock. Much of this language recalls Marshall McLuhan's definition of media as "extensions of man" (3). Here the extension, consciousness, is most decidedly a shield, and not a spear.”
(featured artist Mike Mitchell)
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