Summer doesn’t speak;
it whispers a conscious melody
to high-heeled fashionistas with open toes,
sunburnt brats with runny noses, and
old men who know
evening air is sweeter
when dusk has had its way.     Humidity.
Sweat of the glass,
                               Tanqueray and tonic
will take away the pain,
Mosquito bites, lonely nights
sitting on an ever- creaky veranda,
Dinah Washington crackles from the speaker.

Suddenly you appear. . .

   Any other day
flowers stand taller, like
the younger women strolling by,
getting younger by the day.
Watch them
                       and wipe
the perspiration from your brow;
the once-crisp handkerchief has
soaked up many nights of lustful thoughts.
Old men just grow older,
the meaning comes with age.     Humility.
Summer lasts as long
as a savings account wastefully spent.

Then you are gone. . .

   Over time
most of the flowers will perish
well before first frost,
mostly from neglect.     Naturally.
We will all grow tired
of looking at them,
                                or forget the beauty.
Our minds go to other places.
Yet summer, in its capricious wisdom,
will breathe again
to those of us who will listen.
To young women
and older men.

© 2018 j.g. lewis

*selected lyrics from Invitation.
Written by Bronislaw Kaper/Paul Francis Webster,
the jazz standard was memorably recorded
by Dinah Washington in 1962. Has desire ever
been captured more sensually in a musical state?

We are, right now, captive in a moment where we are questioning everything we have known.
   All of us want answers.
   Too many of us have been isolated for too long. We now doubt everything from our faith to our practices, our governments, science, and each other; even those we are closest to.
   More so, we question ourselves and will continue to do so as long as this pandemic threat continues.
   We are tired of the distance. There is a gulf between what we used to know and all we can’t understand.
   We no longer trust. We can’t.
   We haven’t bottomed out (not yet), financially, morally, or spiritually but we don’t even know how close we are. We cannot know how deep this well runs, nor can we feel how empty it is.
   We have lost touch.
   We lack human contact. We are tired of looking at everything from a distance.   We have lost perspective.
   We have grown tired of waiting. We are tired of wanting.
Each of us is questioning where we are, what we have, and when we will get out of this mess.
   There is no answer. Sadly, we wouldn’t believe it if there were.
   Nothing is normal.
   When will this end?
   Will we go back to the way things once were?
   Do we go back to what we were doing (can we go back) or will we allow our thoughts to wander. Can we wonder?
   Can we still dream?
   Are our dreams relevant? Are there some dreams we’ve held onto which can no longer be salvaged?
   I have no answers.
   I have no more questions than the next human. My voice is restricted to what I know, and I’m not even sure if there is value in knowing any more.
   I no longer understand.

It’s 9:23 a.m. on Wednesday. The street is not silent as cars and bikes stream by on this hot summer morning..
   A young woman sits quietly on a metal bench in the shadow of the condominium across the street, knapsack across her lap and lighter in hand, the small flame heating up whatever she has in her hand. An older guy stands over her, looking down, syringe in hand, oblivious as I walk by.
   The street corner is littered with take-away coffee cups, plastic bottles, bags, blue straps and used syringes.
   This has become a common street corner scene in downtown Toronto.
   Last Sunday, about 8:30 p.m., I watched one man help another man find a vein on the same sidewalk bench, and then stick a needle in his arm.
   Sure enough, the needle was there the next morning, along with others.
   Sadly Sunday evening’s scene was 50 steps away from a safe injection site that offers supervised drug injection by harm-reduction workers. The facility was open at the time, but this did not make a difference to these users.
   It’s sad that any addiction has come to this point.
   It is even sadder that those who chose to use do so on city streets where the remains of their deeds are tossed away in places people, children, and dogs walk regularly.
   There is evidence of hard drug use on these streets pretty much each day. Used syringes are becoming as common as discarded facemasks. I often phone 311 and provide a description and coordinates, often more then one needle at a time, in several different places.
   The next day those needles, or hypodermic syringes, may not be there, but others are.
   Daily I walk these streets, usually early morning when there are fewer people out and about. Social distancing is easier. Daily exercise is necessary.
   Each day I become more concerned for my safety and for that of my neighbours.
   When the safe injection site opened, much was said about this facility making the streets safer.
   What we have seen is an influx of traffic.
   The streets are not safer; not for those who pass by.

It has taken a pandemic to cast eyes on the issue of homelessness in Toronto
   Seeing the problem is easy. Fixing it, apparently, is not.
With COVID-19 and dangers of its spread, along with respecting social distancing, space in city shelters has been dramatically reduced over past months. Some temporary respite shelter space has been set up, and reportedly city agencies were offering space in some hotels, but there simply is not the available space to handle an issue of this magnitude.
   For weeks now, tents have been popping up in a couple of downtown parks. These encampments continue to grow. There are close to 50 tents set up on any given day in Moss Park.
   Each morning I walk by the encampment. I see the garbage spread across the grass, the feces and piss puddles in surrounding lanes, and the used needles on the sidewalk.
   It’s not healthy for either the campers or for the community.
   There was a recent stabbing in the park, the victim listed in serious condition. Police reports do not indicate an arrest.
   But the Toronto Police do report one of the tents was being used to “prepare and sell drugs.” A week old news release indicates a quantity of Fentanyl was seized along with cocaine, cash, and a loaded Smith and Wesson semi-automatic firearm.
   Three people were arrested.
   And the tents remain.

When I moved from Winnipeg to Toronto five years ago, all that came with me was what would fit in the car. I whittled down a substantial vinyl collection and brought with me what I considered to be essential albums.
I later noticed how many of those albums were from Canadian bands, groups and musicians.
I grew up listening to music and I still do. Regularly. Every day,
I listen to both new and old music (classic is often an overused, under-appreciated term). I listen to what matters (or mattered) at the time, all the time.
How could I not? My history, my memory, has a soundtrack.
I’ve always considered music to be a necessity rather than a luxury.I even spontaneously popped into Sonic Boom yesterday and spent more money than I intended.
Most of my newest music was made in the past year or two but that is not always the case. Sometimes I’ll go way back.
Often, I end up in my own country’s musical landscape.
Today I’m going to explore that landscape.
What else are you to do on a national holiday intended to celebrate how great this country is? There are not a lot of public celebrations today; this pandemic and its further dangers have, pretty much taken care of that.
Yes, our national broadcaster is throwing something together across all its platforms to pay heed to the fact it is our national broadcaster, but haven’t we all spent too much time in front of a screen over these past couple of months?
Me, today, I’m going to sift through my albums and compact discs and play, in no certain order, music from artists that have shaped my life and made a cultural contribution to our identity as Canadians.
I’m going to listen to rock, pop, jazz and classical music that I’ve invested in over the years and today concentrate on a purely Canadian playlist.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Canada.
I’ll be posting album covers of what I’m playing on Instagram as I make my way through the day (find me at jg_lewis). Sometimes I might even tell you something about the album, or what or why I remember about the time, or a song. Mostly though, I’ll let the music speak for itself.
Today is all about Canada. Happy Canada Day.