Founder's DayBy Ben Robinson
It is not a metaphor when I write
that the city’s original square sketched by the hands of Mr. George Hamilton was centred on a prison, that though the wooden walls were sound the foundation was so compromised a prisoner need only lift the loose board in the corner to make their exit, that once free, if they followed the main road south, it would have led straight to the founder’s door. Chain BearerBy Ben Robinson
Augustus Jones laying out Main Street
with a hundred link chain pulled taut every sixty-six feet – a slight deflection each time he reset for the next segment, most pronounced at Queen, where perhaps he stumbled or lost his bearings after lunch, giving the street its northward bent. This afternoon, the Roads Department echoes his drifting line across five lanes of asphalt for commuters to trace with their wheels come morning. Ben Robinson is a poet, musician and librarian. His most recent publication is Without Form from The Blasted Tree and knife | fork | book. The Book of Benjamin is forthcoming from Palimpsest Press in the fall of 2023. He has only ever lived in Hamilton, Ontario on the traditional territories of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Haudenosaunee and Mississaugas. You can find him online at benrobinson.work.
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