#1

If you want to know how Spiritual someone is… just say no to them.

#2

If you want to find out how spiritual someone is, suggest they offer an apology to the family member they are feuding with…

Dennis Mantin

This is that face my daughter makes:

When I tell her that I am no longer the most beautiful man in the world…

I tell her, “I have transcended beyond beauty. ”

Dennis Mantin

“In N.Y.C. everyone walks with their heads down… hardly anyone looks another person in the eyes.”

I can’t remember who said that, but it must have been Mr Whilmshurst, my grade 8 history teacher. He was the only person I knew who traveled when I was younger.

The theory for this behavior was inconclusive.

I see people behave like this in Toronto. They don’t want to be bothered by people they don’t know. And with good reason. It’s a class thing and fear. People are begging for money mainly.

Sometimes, I have given. After giving 3 times, it’s expected. After 4, they are dependent. I have seen one of these dependents see me and run across traffic to get to me… then I said no.

He sits outside the liquor store day after day greeting and cajoling spare change; telling all who pass to have a wonderful day or wishing them the best for whatever upcoming holiday is arriving. He’s healthy and personable and appears to have the gift of gab and a memory for names.

I can’t help myself from wondering how one arrives at a career choice like this. Does it come on gradually or did he just wake up one day and say, “I’m going to be a bum.”?

This falls under the category of question that I can ask and feel satisfied at not ever getting an answer.

Dennis Mantin

We circle in the darkness and we’re waiting for the sun.

And the fever has been broken and a new day has begun.

Nothing has been promised just expectations of some light.

Somewhere between faith and hope and will be a welcome sight.Dennis Mantin

The drinks were in abundance.

The ice was cold and cubed.

The songs and myths were in a loop.

The tongues were loosely lubed.

Last call came at closing.

There was screaming in their throats.

With no one left to take them home.

And they were really feeling their oats.

The sun came out at midday.

The rays were bright and warm.

There were rumblings of a brouhaha.

Along with rumors of a storm.

Such sadness at the opera.

Tears fall down-long face.

Dining drinks eases the pain.

Entertainment lens and double takes.

Fears like that are no place special.

Just more or less adieu…

There was something about the final act…

Left me cold for something new.

I watched her rise and fall over our sleepy little town. That dead rock in the sky, that shines over us all… Who knows the secrets here? Where? Where everyone pretends that nothing happens.

The warm salt waters of the Gulf Stream flow north from Mexico, along the eastern continental shelf, passed Cape Breton and beyond. Cold arctic air sweeps down over frozen tundra and bristles raised hairs on hunched backs, along Labrador and into the Northumberland Strait. Where these 2 meet is a spit of land that rises out of the Atlantic, just north of New York City, and is formerly known as New Scotland. It’s because of this; the north winds and the south currents that the conversations here are usually always about the weather…

To an outsider, it would appear as if nothing else goes on here but the weather. However, appearances are deceiving. Nothing is as it seems…

Reminds me of the old joke… A man from the city asks a fisherman, “What do you do around here for excitement.”

The fisherman smiles, ” In the summertime we fish and we fuck. In the winter, we don’t fish. “

The cold is blue and choppy.

White is coming from the north.

My friends are all with someone else.

We take it back and forth.

They are planning for big futures.

Where big dreams can come true.

But there’s a lineup at the checkout.

Where impatience quickly grew.

There is haze on that horizon.

And the sun is getting high.

I think I’ll have myself a nap.

Before I say goodbye.

The greatest wisdom of man is less than the smallest wisdom of God.