Elements of Daydreams

Christmas, 1998 / No. 2

The buds, the keys, the leaves

those leaves, the colours, bare trees…

Can’t be wistful about money.

Wistful’s got you know wist.

Plenty other things to go wistful on.

Take that G— works the desk

make you wistful. Faraway

train in the night make you.

Sun hits your neck when you have some

free time turn you wistful.

Shadow of a low plane arcing through

Eglinton Park. Trysts that you keep

on a map in your brain, places you save

in your savoury memory. Mansions

you fashion from stars from the sky

you can reach them from bed through September

night air. Open windows, all the rooms

in the world, I guess space can make you wistful.

Botany in time in season after season

in scrutiny fields of dandelion fluff

it’s a fact: sniffing can also make

you wistful.

The tender of wistful

is daydreams.

Of dreams in the night

the tender is metaphor.

All this is precious little to do with money.

Wistful consists of space and free time: on occasion

it’s misspelt as “wasteful.” Some folks just plain

don’t get it. Some do. Some point

they take the time to pause

to stop resisting wistful.