Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Toronto Love Song

I found two dead rats outside my front door last week. If this isn't a sign to move, I don't know what is. As I've already tried to wax about poetically before (and before that and even before that), my house this summer hasn't felt like a home. It is too transitional. Too sterile. Too Pirates of the Caribbean Part II-filled. Too little of me and too much of other people.

But as in-between as everything has felt lately, this city has welcomed me throughout it all. Aside from one special boy and a wombmate, it has been my one and only, my rock, my bff this summer. I thought I knew it inside and out before we reunited permanently this past May, but I soon realized it is impossible to ever know it inside and out. Said wombmate left for Japan just a week ago, and the city has already begun changing in her absence. Landmarks are being replaced by condos. Favourite restaurants are getting made over. The west-end will soon become home. Yet despite Toronto's elusive quality, I still managed to find a way to wrap my arms around it and hold it close during all this time of transition.

And it was the perfect bff. It never left me lonely at night. It shared its most precious secrets. We roamed these streets together and learned to call them home.

2 comments:

Steph said...

I find Toronto to be such a confusing and elusive woman.

Sometimes she loves me, and nothing makes me happier than roaming her streets, sauntering to my ipod.

But those days when I feel isolated and completely alone, despite being surrounded by millions and millions of people, everyone going their own directions? She's a little overwhelming. Always seeming so much larger and stronger than me, just slipping through my fingers and wiggling away...

welcome to the west end darlin.

Lindsay said...

I loved this! *tear tear* It couldn't have been said any better. While our beloved city keeps changing before our eyes, I think all of its beautiful flaws remain: hipsters on their bikes on hot summer nights, the odd Ron Sexsmith sighting at the Dominion's in Little Italy and the dozens of Korean owned Japanese restaurants. But now a new neighbourhood full of new adventures awaits! Can't wait to hear all about them.