Summer Slits Her Throat
September 28, 2006
Walking in the valley tonight and the green I love so dearly is quietly and swiftly fading; bleeding its way into yellow, orange, burgundy. It’s a beautiful and amazing time, this, now. The leaves are transmogrifying but have yet to bust to the dark gray of the sidewalks. The air holds that strop that winter hones her teeth on. Strolling and chewing up a perfectly fine autumn evening with the trees and leaveless steps and somewhere someone is fretting over gas prices. Sporadic joggers drop steps to the dark walks – those “multi-use” trails that belong to everyone but are owned by the cyclists. A few of them, too, and they speed past with the usual lack of concern, bells ringing and drivechains punching. Downtown sits nobly on the edge of the north shore, her spires appearing extra-clear this night. The yellow leaves stir up the senses and the memories – school starting, loves ending, things beginning. So short is this season. Every season, really. Ephemeral is summer’s hickey. Thin are autumn’s leaves. I take a drag of the city beautiful, a deep inhale, her noseblood rushing in and lighting a smile. Valley still holds onto a sprig of green, the odd tree in defiance of earth’s tilt. On this quiet path the leaves will soon reside. As we all do, they wait for the blurry white.
Vignette #116
1 reader comment (closed)
Sunset, Saskatchewan Drive Edmonton
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About
StreetRag is an urban weblog and podcast about the city of Edmonton, which is located in the province of Alberta, Canada. It is authored by Edmonton-based writer, web advocate, and poet Michael Gravel and is updated frequently with written urban vignettes, amateurish photographs, deuteronomous audio material, barely coherent musings and rambling ecumenical treatises. StreetRag is a love letter to a lonely prairie burg struggling with its big city ambitions and small-town feel.
Recent Vignettes
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May 13, 2008 • - Avenue 6am • #259
April 2, 2008 • - Overheard on the 4 Westbound • #258
March 31, 2008 • - Cigarettes and Aspirin • #257
March 28, 2008 • - Subscribe Archive
Podcast Episodes
- North Station • Ep. #13
March 26, 2008 - The Winter Market • Ep. #12
March 19, 2008 - Third Cafe Sketch • Ep. #11
March 11, 2008 • 2 comments - Industrial Park Jam • Ep. #10
November 14, 2007 - Subscribe (iTunes) Information
The City
The city is Edmonton. It's a subject, not a passion. E-Town is almost universally derided by outsiders as an unlivable tundra wasteland populated by oil-hungry redneck conservatives who despise the arts. All of that is true. But it's not the whole story. There is beauty here. Dusty snowfalls. Brilliant summers. A stunning river valley. A diverse arts community that flourishes. It's a place that inspires a gray relationship - not all good, not all shitty. For that reason alone it is lovable, for what is life but a grayscale?
1
Rich
Death to all cyclists. Theyre a hazzard on the road and on the sidewalk. They have no respect. Burn the lot of ‘em.
Sep 28, 2006 • 09:38