prison song 07

prison song 07
by Joe Blades © 2006

property of fredericton tourism
not—though i feel slavish stuck
here in public artistic isolation
in the hole—took the sticker
off the patio umbrella base
not the property—no thanks
once had a property of alcatraz
souvenir t-shirt from mouse
finally making it to san franciscio
months after our foiled attempt
on $49 employee discount rates
calgary to frisco return flights
(banff springs where we
worked and all cp hotels
owned by canadian pacific air
in a short-term flipflop deal)
made it down valley and over
the wall around the world
into the foothills beyond—bow
river all the way to cowtown
airport and hours of waiting
for a red-eye out of toronto
we settle across several chairs
after check-in at the counter
armed guards with german shepherd
dogs patrolled almost empty corridors
until sometime in the early hours
of tomorrow when a fellow
canadian pacific employee
came over and said our flight
was cancelled because the plane
was returning to toronto after
blue smoke filled the cockpit
—something electrical or
electronic—they put us up
for the rest of the night
in the airport hotel and offered
to reschedule flights in the morning
(but this was to have been
a days-off mad dash to golden
gate bridge city lights bookstore
and so much more still not seen)

T-shirt: Highland Radio 1996
loc: FAA casemate
temp: 20 C
sound: Baraka Bata "Banboo"