1. “Thingymajig” was written in response to a question put to the author and others by Saturday Night for their millennium issue: What idea, trend, or technology should make an impact on our lives in the next century?
2. “Another Dim Boy Claps” is after Richard Hugo’s poem “The Freaks at Spurgin Road Field.”
3. “Lyman M. Davis: Built 1873, Burned 1931” was a decommissioned lake ferry set ablaze off Sunnyside Park for amusement.
The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of The Ontario Arts Council.
Several of the poems appeared in the following publications: Exile, Malahat Review, Queen Street Quarterly, THIS Magazine, Saturday Night, and the anthology Why I Sing the Blues. Thanks to the editors of each. Other poems were commissioned for and aired on cbc’s Out Front — Poet’s Premiere. I am indebted to my editor and friend A. F. Moritz for his essential work at the end. And to the friends — Suzanne Buffam, David O’Meara, Don McKay, Adam Sol, and Tamas Dobozy — whose genius, collective and separate, went into the making, I owe more than just thanks.