Wigeon Wal-Mart
Posted by Heather Burt
Nelson is a great town. Having feasted on organic goodies from one of the many fine Baker Street eateries, and window shopped for a while, I set off on my run (which morphed into a run/walk ... should have window shopped and digested a while longer!). I followed a beautiful waterfront trail, with Kootenay Lake and snowcapped mountains to one side, parkland and more mountains to the other.
A few highlights ...
1) Spotting a group of young people sitting in a circle on the grass, playing guitars together (one guy stood with an upright bass).
2) Possibly spotting the charming young novelist with whom I chatted at L.V. Rogers Secondary this morning. I’m not sure if it was him, but I think sitting on a bench with a friend, watching the water, is a fine thing for an aspiring writer to be doing. (Rita and I had an excellent time at the school, by the way, and very much appreciated the hospitality and interest of staff and students!)
3) Experiencing first-hand Rita’s poem “Recognition/Identification Test.” This needs some explanation. The poem pairs up names of plants and names of corporations and implicitly asks the reader/audience to think about which are more familiar and why. Rita and I read it together this morning: she read the plants; I read the corporations; we said “blackberry” together at the end (“Blackberry” in my case). Anyway, at one point during my walk/run, I paused to read an information board titled “Know Your Ducks,” from which I learned that the bird swimming down below me was a wigeon — a local duck with reddish-brown and grey plumage. Never heard of it, I said to myself ... then I glanced across the park at the all-too-familiar Wal-Mart and thought Hmmm.
A lively and fun reading at the Nelson Library this evening. Thanks to all those who came out! Away to Creston tomorrow ....
Cheerio,
Heather
Paul Headrick
Apr 23, 2008 at 08:48 AM
It’s difficult for me to say without having been there, but I believe that may actually have been the lesser western mock Wal-Mart.