City Planning

On an aircraft
Once again departing
The place where I started and
Though not at the end
Of all my exploring,
I seem to know this place for the first time.
The clearest of cloudless skies
Insists the ocean is a cobalt blue
Her face a breathless blue
And frothing at the mouth
Of St. John's harbour ...
And I see my hometown anew.
My gull's eye view
Appreciates in clarity
The further my city recedes
And I ponder the double meaning
Of Toronto bound.

Soaring past icy shorelines
Where seas fret for idle fishers
Over winter's sleepy farmer fields
Beyond which the landscape lies
In a maze of snakes and ladders paths -
The industrial severity of pole lines,
The meandering leniency of footpaths -
Until I reach sprawling vistas of metropolis.
Efficiency void of character,
Plotted with all the logic of a silicon chip,
The integrated technology
Of effective and sterile planning;
Laid out in finely detailed miniature
Like a model on some boardroom table,
Seeking approval
Needing approval.

While miles behind me
Old St. John's
Sprawls complacently
She stretches by the seashore
Tiny barnacle houses
Clinging to rock, barely managing
To stay dry
To claim to be part of the land
The history of her planning amounting to
Humbly creeping
Up over the hill
Her harbourside heart
Willing her forward
Yard by yard
Having begged permission
From a distant and disinterested sovereign
Serpentine city streets
Planned by cows
Sonless farmers selling suburbia
City planning forced by necessity
And forged in Great Fires
Expansion wrought
From daring and speculative enterprise
Seeking no approval
Needing no approval

I look out an Air Canada "porthole"
And sigh as I hear ...
"Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Toronto ..."
You're welcome to it!

Michael Coady © 2004