BLESSINGS AND GRATITUDE

I live in this city on the lip of the Arctic Circle
Where winter rushes in and stays like the relative
You disown but can't throw out no matter how
Much you might like to because he's family

Still, there is magic here where the aurora
Dances and cultures mix with abandon
The famous five began their fight to establish
Women as people under the law – right here
Where the seat of the provincial government is also

Friends from the east come here and say
How do you stand it, it's so flat this town
So I drag them downtown and then to the river
And threaten to make them climb the cliffs
Up from the valley and then tell me how flat
It is here in this city that I now call home and love

Why, when you could have stayed in Calgary
Where you could see the mountains everyday
Did you move here, they ask foolishly and then
Back to the river valley we go and I take a picnic
And sometimes a tent and we camp there

Until they see what I see, smell the aspen, realize
That down by the water, even in the heart of the
Metropolis, you cannot see any urbanity – a miracle that
Then we go to a festival, topside, or the dragon boat
races or Chinatown or little Italy, or just home to relax

And finally, finally, my so-called cosmopolitan friends
Get it – have their aha moment and say things
About how they don't guess I'll ever be moving
Back east, will I – I don't guess...

S.E.Ingraham©

Posted originally on Poetic Asides blog, and permanently on City of Edmonton's official blog at following link: http://www.edmontonstories.ca/story/blessings-and-gratitude-in-edmonton