Liveable

Did you hear the news?
Vancouver's the number one
most liveable city
in the world

Ask Rose
she would probably say
Baby I knew about it, I just didn't care

Used to live in
a room in Burns Block
downtown east side
eight years of people pissing on the floor
garbage to the ceiling
needles in the hallways
Not much of a home, but it was hers

Better than nothing when all you got is
arthritis
intestinal inflammation
Crohn's disease and
sixty years of life-aint-some-fuckin-game

Then the fire police came one day
gave them all
the street

Thirty five hundred roses
out there
but who's counting?

Thirty percent with HIV
but who's counting?

Rose and her people
owned this place
when it was
the most liveable land
in the world

Coast Salish
Squamish

You could ask Rose

but these days
she's sleeping