CABBAGETOWN 1939 

(a poem written by Hendrik Bennink, inspired by my painting)

Yesterday’s heroes become tomorrow’s men

History unfolds then it begins again

There’s scattered ghosts drifting down the alleyways

The morning sun peeks out through a filtered haze

Cabbagetown girls smoking menthol cigarettes

Handed down in time by sister suffragettes

You’ve come a long way baby, don’t you look back

Keep one eye open, you’re still under attack

Moss Park boys meet girls on Parliament after dark

Hiding in the shadows they kiss and strike a spark

The women haunting Jarvis know what they’re about

You can try to leave but you’re not getting out

Rooms to let on Sumach, just twenty five cents

The unemployed drink gin. the petty thief repents

Broken men and women staring at four walls

Kids crack the mortar with India rubber balls

Acrylic on Gallery Wrapped Canvas

1.5" Profile

30"X40"

Boarded up basement windows in need of repair

No one wants to know what’s going on down there

Working class zeros waltz on factory floors

They dance through the streets as the foreman locks the doors

They ride the Streetcars to the unemployment line

They can’t crack the mold, it is there by design

The kids at Regent Street School all have big dreams

At fifteen years of age they’re just misplaced schemes

River rats on River Street, they all know the score

This is all there is there isn’t anymore

They paddle up the Don, find themselves in jail

Another power outage, another system fail

Someone forgot the cages when the zoo left town

We’ve got lots of room, why don’t you come on down