Concord and Bloor – Irfan Ali

CONCORD AND BLOOR

The week after he was struck
and killed by a bus
we passed his memorial
on a light pole at Concord and Bloor.
He smiled and looked out towards the lake
from his very best photo
framed by a pool of candles
already snuffed by long January nights.

You stopped and bent down
with my favourite lighter in your hand.
(Okay, I admit, I looked at your ass
but only for a second.)
I had no choice but to admire
all the humanity
packed so densely into your body
that could make you bend down
in a blizzard of cold wind and stares
to relight candles left
for a man you never knew
and everyone else had already forgotten.

Irfan is a poet and short fiction writer born and raised in Toronto. He is the Operations Manager for Impossible Arts and curates the Impossible Words reading series. His work has appeared in Underground Inspirations (2011), West of What We Know (2012), and the online Youth Writers from the Edge zine (2012). He was selected as part of the Diaspora Dialogues short-form poetry mentorship program in 2011. He lives in Toronto.