The sheep lives its whole life, fearing the wolf, only to be eaten by the Sheppard. Understand this, and you understand politics.

The problem is not that you lied. The problem is that I can’t trust you again… The problem is that I held you above the masses.

Now you are just among the herd, grazing, shitting, complaining; or whatever it is your lot does down there.

All over but the dying.

I can hear a distant roar.

I’ve resigned my fears of flying.

Oh the mysteries! Why? What for?

All too clever for the answers.

We keep searching for more clues.

Dodging earthquakes, fame and cancers.

There is meaning in ‘The Blue’s.’

Never felt like I was welcomed.

I was strange and stranger still.

Like a begger at the banquet feast.

I just couldn’t get my fill.

All those important things that I used to focus on…

Sports scores.

Getting high.

The drunken dances where I didn’t dance.

The partying!

Was it all a waste of time?

Certainly not!

All part of the journey…

The Mink Mile is the nickname given to a kilometer stretch along the Bloor Street corridor in downtown Toronto that houses some of the most pretentious expensive stores and realistate that Canada has to offer.

It is early here, and the crowds that shop here are still in large fluffy goosedown beds, dreaming of maximizing their Monday profits. All the best kids!

I was a boy when people asked me…

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

‘Unafraid.’ I thought.

“I don’t know.” I answered.

I just wanted people to stop hitting me. I just didn’t want to be afraid all the time.

I grew tall and people asked me.

“Why are you so angry?”

“Why do you drink so much?”

“I don’t know. ” I lied.

I am 58 years old and I am a father and I know what I want. To teach her and show her love and support her and be her friend… and paint and make films.

“I will tell story.”

Said I.

Dennis Mantin

That feeling of life slipping away…

Through fingers of time has somehow escaped me.

I don’t know why, however I do know it burdens you.

I see it in the lines of your face and feel it in the chill of your touch.

You feel as though life is a trap; no matter how many times I tell you no!

It is a gateway and what you do here matters.

He told the joke that made you laugh. 

And creased your forehead like a path.

I took to silence in my smile.

You looked inside. It took a while.

I sometimes thought what it could take.

To slightly stir or violent shake.

I listened hard the words he spoke.

That broke on through; you got the joke.

To see you smile, it could have been me.

And hid my face. The jealousy.

Impossible no more. Now I am free.

No sad goodbyes. Blue skies, I see.

He told the joke that made you laugh.

And creased your forehead like a path.

I took to silence in my smile.

You looked inside. It took a while.

I met Wendy online. She is brave and she is bold. Not like Batman in a mini, left me standing in the cold.

Wendy loves my intellect, says she wants to shave my balls. And not a moments hesitation. I’ll be taking all Wendy’s calls. There’s a shift in something somewhere. That time that push has come to shove. I’m not hearing the others calling. Cause I’m drunk on Wendy’s love.

I’m standing in the fog here. Here huddled in the rain. Feeling warm and fuzzy. I got Wendy on the brain.

Wendy loves my intellect, says she wants to shave my balls. And not a moments hesitation. I’ll be taking all Wendy’s calls. There’s a shift in something somewhere. That time where push has come to shove. I’m not hearing the others calling. Cause I’m down for Wendy’s love.

Now I have not met Wendy. In the person face to face. In the shadows brave and many. In this darkness; human race.

Wendy loves my intellect. Says she wants to shave my balls. And not a moments hesitation. I’ll be taking Wendy’s calls. There’s a shift in something somewhere… A time that push has come to shove. I don’t hear the others calling, because I’m into Wendy’s Love.

Dennis Mantin

I get distracted so easily.

I’ll be reading Marcus Aurelius’s ‘Meditations’ and a text asking me about whether Bukowski is a misogynist or not, and I go down that road.

It’s always been this way.

I am trying to begin writing my 2nd novel. There are so many distractions like work and parenting…

My attraction to Asian women has been a late arrival. Perhaps 20 years ago, there weren’t as many as there are now. I’m sure   I’d be saying the same thing about Mexican women if I lived in California or Mexico.

The traffic is savage now in Toronto and is the thing that distracts the masses here most. This and Asian women…