For the summer I’m going back to the series of pieces mythologizing growing up in Cape Breton. Check the Village Stories page http://wp.me/P1RtxU-1fT here for previous pieces in this series posted in July/August 2014
Nordstrom
one of the great feast days in our village
was Founders Day
when we would be forced to recite
the saga of Mikke Nordstrom
the first human to set foot on this land
from where he had come remains unknown
all we have is the birch bark
on which he wrote in moose blood
‘I Mikke Nordstrom do hereby establish
a village on this spot’
he built the first trading post strip joint
from that quickly sprouted
what we know as our village today
to celebrate there would be reenactments
of his writing the proclamation
every one of the villagers
had to write it out a hundred times
then bring it to the bishop for certification
we couldn’t start the celebration
till this had been done
after that
would be the cleansing of the pudding
followed by the washing
of the 10,001 steps of the cathedral
this washing had to be done in silence
the only sound was the brush of moose hide
as the steps were polished by the village virgins
once they reached the top
the combined choir would sing
‘our moose in thee we are strong’
‘smelts be praise to God’
my mother always cried at this point
as she stood up to survey the streets
filled with proud citizens
after the silence was broken by our jubilant songs
there would be green apple pies to be eaten
cats to be annoyed
boys would be sent to the Whistling Woods
to lead the lost men
back to the village square
to be washed and have their wounds tended
sometimes these reclaimed men
would return to their families
some would slink back to the Woods
preferring the cold shelter of moose bones
to being a part of society
in the evening the fathers would gather
to tell us of the great wars
of how our village
had helped change the course of reality
when night was fully upon us
we would fumble through the dark streets
to the strip joints to relax
as the women danced on the unlit stage
in the morning there would be gifts
tokens of our village’s proud heritage
usually small aluminum amulets
with the face of Mikke Nordstrom
embossed on one side
and the village motto
colpejar als pobres ‘beat up the poor’
inscribed on the other
the greening of the sidewalk
I can’t begin to tell you how much the absurdity of some these pieces delights me. I picked this one in particular for Canada Day when there are many odd localized traditions being celebrated, perhaps nothing signed in blood except for the blood of the fallen.
My village is a sweet mix of religions: some sort of orthodox & some from a childlike importation of native beliefs. If you remember from last year’s pieces, the moose plays a big part in this imaginary world. I think the moose deserves a bigger role in Canada’s mythology, so I’m giving it a place of honour here.
no escape
Holidays are also time we we try to put aside rancour with our fellows, so the ‘the lost men’ are given a chance to be found. I can’t recall were the inspiration came from as these separate images darted to the page – word association for some & the need to create this wonky through lines of images & motifs for others.
they’ll nibble your bum
Somewhere I still have the free medallion some newspaper distributed for the marriage of Charles & Diana, so the village amulets are keeping in with a fine tradition of disposable collectables. The inscription comes from Charles Baudelaire – me showing off the depth of cynical education:-) while nodding to the fact that we don’t shoot the poor the way they do in USA, we have social constraints to beat them to keep them in their place (out of sight.)
November 1 – 30 Participating NaNoWriMo
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Happy Canada Day! Celebrate with a moose! LOL! Love and naked hugs! 🙂