Passenger Seat Satellite

If one night, whilst I lie in my bed, the Lord told meThat all I ever had and more would disappearI would never make another movie, never write another wordNever beat on against the currents like liberty told me I wouldNor spread my wings and dive into the valley, abseiling like a birdI would neverContinue reading “Passenger Seat Satellite”

the dollhouse

i carried the dollhouse, safe on my shouldersbowed but steady, beckoned with becomingbeneath shooting stars and satellites, she sat in my seatspeaking such small safeties and the softest subtletiesand as we descended the hill and passed beneath the freewaystars scattered across the river, nightlights in the baysoft sodium like glass across the banks of theContinue reading “the dollhouse”

Sasha

Sasha had frizzy platinum blonde hair, beautiful green eyes, a Slavic demeanour that left her with an aura of stubborn self-reliance, a coldness that put many first-timers off. There was a romance about her, though, and her dreary Soviet town, her fuzzy green 80s sweaters, the commie-blocks and the Brutalist architecture of her native Volgograd.Continue reading “Sasha”

What will I do with that green bag?

Last September, what is probably my favourite television show of all time came to an end. After some 25 years of working together, Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond, and, my favourite host, James ‘Captain Slow’ May  finally parted ways, first on the BBC’s motoring programme Top Gear, and later on its spiritual successor The GrandContinue reading “What will I do with that green bag?”

Waiting and Departing

In the southwest corner of Saskatchewan, there exists a rural municipality known to Statistics Canada as Reno No. 51. It lies six hours south of my hometown, Calgary, which, in the vast expanse of the Canadian Prairies, is but a short jog away. Neither is it particularly far away from the various population centres inContinue reading “Waiting and Departing”

Armistice

Armistice, armistice, peace at lastHave you learned to love those leaves of glass?Or do you long for softer things, like liberty in the harbourThat call to stretch your arms farther, fartherDo you even have what it takes? To leave those sheets of snow?Leave your boys on a mountain’s edge, say ‘last one, time to go’OrContinue reading “Armistice”

To our absent members.

Ten years ago, in 2015, a ten-year-old Ansel wrote his first screenplay, Wings of Canada. It was an action-comedy feature involving a war breaking out between Canada and a hegemony of Russian, Chinese, and American forces. A whole squadron of characters, funny yet ingenious, would rise up to fight the invading forces, and through theirContinue reading “To our absent members.”

Alone in America at the End of History

Sometime in the early 90s, a bright-eyed, idealistic young man, fresh out of high school and his mandatory two years of military service, packed up everything he had to his name and crossed the ocean for the very first time. The almost thirty-some-hour quadruple flight from Singapore to Tokyo to Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin mustContinue reading “Alone in America at the End of History”