ocean surge lust, sick of strip malls,
    every day break the sludge:
caffeine, wine, rapping,

living in a cat world –
   what’s on the menu? diner? mcdonald’s?
too cold for a hike
                           in town north;

survive on poetry, notebooks,
                             cravings for
silent absorption in woodland,
yearnings for the
                                          trail –

zippy-fueled mad scrawlings of
                haiku, lyrics, love
           letters;
high on dreams of
lake superior, mississauga
                       river, old man of houy –

Jack Dempster is a Toronto folk poet, musician, and editor. He has a BA in English from Trent University. His work has been published for Metro Toronto’s Poetry Challenge (haiku), and in Wunderlit Magazine, Former People, The Town Crier, Jam & Sand, Gnashing Teeth, Of Poets and Frenchmen (chapbook) and Juniper – A Poetry Journal. Jack Dempster produces Cascadian Art.