PART TWO

WINTER

The Rouge River is frozen still and quiet. Grandfather Heron hides.

At Warden Station

Despite the cold, a lineup builds at a café, as people wait for their Jamaican beef patties, a delicacy sandwiched between coco bread buns. People relish its heat in their hands and the steam across their faces.

At the corner of Markham and Eglinton

Lucky 88 Asian Market is busy. Brown and Black folks of all sorts take a number and wait for the butcher to cut their choice meat. Whole goat. Oxtail. Beef tongue.