The Olympic games are over and the closing ceremonies are now done

It was Canada’s best showing with twenty four medals being won

It was already a year behind when it finally did begin

The fact that they accomplished it, could be the biggest win

Athletes had to perform without the luxury of a crowd

Due to the resurgence of this Pandemic, few spectators were allowed

The heat and humidity were at a record peak

There was even the threat of a cyclone within the starting week

The first events started in the pool

As far as Canada was concerned it was the women that would rule

The males would garnish seven medals, the females seventeen

Penny Oleksiak is now our reigning Queen

Her three medals won in itself is definitely quite a feat

Her career totals are now seven which makes her our greatest Olympic athlete

Teammates Maggie McNeil would win three and Kylie Mass win two

Laurence Vincent would also win a pair for sprinting in a canoe

Of the seven men who won, Andre DeGrasse would earn three

He may be our greatest sprinter that we will ever see

In team sports, the women would continue to excel

Eight woman canoe, softball and soccer as well

A bronze in softball, canoeing and soccer they claimed the gold

Julia Grosso’s last penalty kick will become a legend often told

Stephanie Labbe should be acknowledged for everything she gave

We wouldn’t have conquered Sweden if she wasn’t there to make the save

Christine Sinclair, the soul of this team

A player that certainly deserves all the esteem

Twenty one years she has been playing this high level game

She deserves all the recognition and all the fame

This elite athlete hasn’t missed a step it would appear

I don’t think she is ready to call it a career

A professional league is what is needed to maintain this caliber of play

The games that we watched will help to pave the way

The marquis event is the decathlon in the Olympics as we all know

Our fellow countryman, Damian Warner put on quite a show

Breaking the games record in the process as he took the top spot

In custom, this gold medalist is considered the best of the lot

So when it came to elect a representative to carry our flag at the close

This athlete from London, Ontario would be the person that they chose

Five years we had to wait for this but now it’s only three

Here’s hoping the next stadium will be filled to capacity for all the world to see

I have been enjoying a hobby now for fifty years and more

It all started when I visited my friend who happened to live next door

There in their entrance, something intrigued me when he let me in

That’s when my interest in tropical fish would initially begin

The colours and the activity peaked my curiosity right away

I have continued with this passion up until today

His parents said I could have some guppies if it was okay with Mom and Dad

My parents said they had no qualms which made me very glad

I kept them in a fishbowl and they thrived in this small space

My parents thought I would tire of it, but this certainly wasn’t the case

I took care to clean the bowl and not one of the occupants had died

When I got home from school one day, there was a surprise for me inside

My parents bought me a five gallon starter kit and a place to put it on display

It wasn’t even Christmas or my birthday, I can still envision it today

This hobby I have enjoyed right from that day one

It’s hard to believe that five decades have passed since this begun

The initial tank  was the smallest over the years they got bigger still

The one in my basement now takes a hundred and twenty five gallons to fill

So now maintaining this fish tank is quite a chore when it’s time to clean

You are gone so long on this job, people wonder where you’ve been

Now it’s in the basement where I don’t seem to spend much time down there

Other than going down to feed the fish, I have really slackened off with the tender loving care

The live plants have been thriving and I have let them grow

It’s gotten to the point where the fish have no place to go

The tank is dark, it’s never bright

That’s because all the greenery is blocking out the light

What do I have to do to get this aquarium back in shape?

This is a replayed scenario where I can find no escape

I have been going back and forth on whether to continue from year to year

Yesterday the answer came to me and it was crystal clear

I had been in denial unable to make that choice

But when I sat and contemplated, I heard my inner voice

It said this job ahead is mammoth and there is so much of it to do

There was no use in arguing with myself, it was absolutely true

If I set this all up again, months from now I will be back in the same place

This shot of reality just slapped me in the face

I then decided to setup two small tanks in order to put the fish in there

I have so many of them I had to use the pair

I gave my plants to my neighbour Rob who shares this affliction too

Got rid of all the water, sand and ornaments and now I’m almost through

I will finish it tomorrow and then sell it online

Throw the fish in as well, things will go just fine

I have so many accessories, it looks like I’m a hoarder

It would be nice to get rid of everything and finally put things in order

I will put it online and hopefully get rid of it all

If you have an interest, be sure to give me a call

We have been noticing lately when we have a rainy day

A certain brown haired rabbit decides to visit us and stay

He or she, I’m not sure of the sex that it could be

Has taken the opportunity of dining on our apple tree

The tree is small and he can reach some branches without a care

The dog and two of us watching, he pretends to be unaware

It was just so cute to watch him when we first spied him there

But after so many visits, some of these branches are now bare

As a result some tension is beginning to build inside of me

I have to find the means to discourage this habit if I want to save this tree

There is definitely something brewing,  perhaps some bad blood

Now somehow I able to sympathize with Elmer Fudd

That’s the cartoon character that Bugs Bunny used to irritate for fun

The one who could never succeed even though he had a gun

When he decides to drop in on us, his visits are not brief

He forages for over twenty minutes, that dirty little thief

He knows we are all watching as he just continues to dine

Nothing seems to faze him, even when the dog lets out a whine

He’s starting to tear down branches when he reaches up for more

I’ve been tempted many times to let the dog bolt out the door

Chances are my poor dog would end up just getting hurt

He seems to come up limping when he breaks into a sudden spurt

So that isn’t even an option because the dog could come up lame

I don’t want any of these animals injured in this silly game

So how am I supposed to prevent this rabbit from coming in our yard

I can’t take the chance of either one of them getting hurt or scarred

Elmer has been trying to get Bugs for fifty years at least

In all that time he hasn’t got the better of this little beast

Even though my patience now is wearing a little thin

I may be waging a war that I may never win

Years of aggravation is what could possibly ensue

Ignoring him, like he does me, is the best thing I can do

I can’t get into the Olympics, I don’t know what to think?

It’s because my internal sports clock is totally all out of sync

I’m used to major sports beginning on a specific date

The Olympics are officially twelve months too late

I’m sure I’m not the only one who is in this distress

When we get realigned is anyone’s guess

The NFL is the only league that started on time last year in the fall

They had their ups and downs but successfully got through it all

They didn’t play the all star game the week before the super bowl

Despite all the empty stadiums, they achieved their final goal

Baseball threw out their first pitch on time in the early spring

Hopefully they will be able to accomplish everything

The CFL cancelled their entire season, not one game did they play

The season starts off in August instead of on Canada Day

The NHL and NBA seasons have been totally out of whack

They hope to start again this October and get everything back on track

Basketball is in the finals of their playoff run

If the Bucks win tomorrow, the season will be done

Then both of these leagues will have their draft before they start this fall

Seattle Kraken will be a new NHL franchise which will be thirty two in all

Getting these entities back to normal is something I hope they will attain

This is one step closer to getting my life back in order again

This is so fragile because it is dependent on bringing this virus to an end

It continues to strengthen as we try our best to defend

The first event at the Olympics hasn’t started and already three cases have arose

This will be a monumental task of keeping it away from every athlete that goes

This has the potential of spreading worldwide from the start

Perhaps one of these participants carrying it with them when they depart

Sitting on the plane and spreading this Delta variant to the rest

Remember they can be still carrying it and have a negative test

They will have to take precautions and isolate each person when they arrive

This is the safest way of insuring that we all can survive

In this respect, they will all have to endure this and take one for the team

Not the ending they imagined they would have to their Olympic dream

We have to all be this vigilant if we want to rid ourselves of this bad seed

If we can’t work through this together we will never succeed

Two weeks since my second Covid shot and now I’m in the clear?

I should feel safe and now have nothing to fear?

So how come I don’t feel so protected and not quite so secure?

It’s not like all this experts have formulated a miraculous cure

I am now in a position where I should be able to beat this latest strain

If these mutations continue to evolve, do we go through this all again?

Locally we are in stage two, just days away from stage three

Once we get to this pinnacle, it’s all just wait and see

That’s because everything will be wide open for everyone to share

Perhaps after a fortnight we will have another scare

Will the cases continue to drop or will it peak once more?

Will we be relegated back to stage one and continue in this war?

Maybe there won’t be any increase and we’ll weather this storm

After nearly two years of this Covid, what will be the norm?

Will you feel confident enough and continue your life without a care?

Or before you venture anywhere, stop and say a prayer?

Continue to wear a mask when you hit your local mall?

Or will you be confident enough to not wear one at all?

It really is a crapshoot when you gather with a bunch

Personally I am still ordering take out when  I spring for lunch

The cases that are occurring are mainly ones that haven’t received their shot

As we continue to get inoculated, they shouldn’t increase by a lot

The goal is for everyone to join together in this fight

Some just refuse to and just don’t feel it’s right

You can’t force someone to do something that they don’t want to do

We have to honour their concerns even if you don’t share their point of view

I’m hoping that these small groups are able to stay healthy as a whole

The ones who are being inoculated attain the targeted goal

The Delta virus is now sixty percent more contagious than all the rest

Trying to dodge this latest variant could prove a daunting quest

Each strain that evolves is stronger than the one before

That means the chances of catching it increase even more

It’s like a game of Russian roulette, pulling the trigger and hoping for a click

Proceeding with your daily tasks and hoping you won’t get sick

Perhaps I’m exaggerating my point, I just hope that no one does get caught

So if the walls begin to close in on you, please give in and get your shot

I have some topics that are on my mind

Trying to concentrate on just one thing is hard to find

I’ll start off by discussing Canada Day’s quiet celebration

We chose to use this time for reflection as a whole nation

Remembering residential school victims is what we chose to do

How many other children’s graves will be discovered when all this is through

I heard a leader claim there will be over fifty thousand children across this land

This level of cruelty is something I will never understand

This week, a native village in Lytton British Columbia was burnt to the ground

After recording the highest temperature in Canada that was ever found

We know of two people who perished in this blaze

If these are the only victims, we should all be amazed

They were surrounded by flames on every side

The only means to escape was to hop in your car and just ride

Just one direction was your course to head out of there

Your whole existence wavered on a wing and a  prayer

This settlement was decimated in one fell swoop

Yet another example of hardship for our indigenous group

This heat dome continues but it is slowly heading east

I hope Mother Nature finds a way of taming this beast

Last week’s subject that seemed so heavy, now seems so light

Are the Canadiens finished or do they still have some fight?

If they fail tonight, the season is  done

This means two years in a row that the Lightning have won

Having the “Habs” in the final has been a welcome treat

Hoping that this will be their first win of four and Tampa Bay doesn’t repeat

Our men’s basketball team failed to qualify for the Olympics this year

They lost to the Czechs by two points and cannot appear

The women however have a team in their race

In the FIBA rankings they occupy fourth place

Will they reach the podium? We will have to wait and see

They are only one step away from being in the top three

Here’s hoping they achieve this and they don’t run short

After all it was a Canadian who invented this sport

Just a little over two weeks for these Olympics to begin

Get behind all our athletes whether they lose or win

I guess in a whole, Canada was my theme for better or worse

I hope after all of these issues we are able to right this course

No matter who you are we need to better ourselves each and every day

If you find someone who needs help, try to show them the way

We now know that our past wasn’t always that bright

It’s now up to each of us to endeavor to make these things right

Looks like our nation still has a fighting chance

Now that the team from Montreal has officially advanced

The one who occupied the final sixteenth space

Is the only team from Canada that’s in the playoff race

They started off by finishing off the Leafs after being down three games to one

Once again as in the past, the Maple Leafs couldn’t get the job done

They then proceeded to finish off the Jets, in four games straight

Then left to relax and recover while they had to sit in wait

Many thought these Canadiens were finished when Vegas tied the next series up

They prevailed by winning the next two and have reached the finals for the cup

There is just one more opponent that is left in their way

That would be the Lightning that hail from Tampa Bay

They are the defenders and are the favourites in this final bout

You would have to be a fool if you are counting the Canadiens out

They have been the underdogs in every game they’ve played

They have stuck to the plan they made and have never strayed

The Lightning still are the team that they will have to beat

Will Montreal be able to accomplish this monumental feat?

They have proved the experts wrong in every single way

Have defied all the odds and are still hanging in there today

They have been extremely successful in this year’s playoff quest

However the Tampa Bay Lightning will prove their biggest test

Carey Price’s performance has been nothing short of stellar

Andrei Vasilevsky’s statistics are only slightly better

Tampa has five players who have more points than Montreal’s top achiever

Even with all this stacked against them, I am still a true believer

I’ve jumped upon this bandwagon like I did on the Raptor’s run

I have been pulling for a Canadian team since the playoffs first begun

Seeing hockey played in July is something we thought we’d never see

Standing proud behind the Canadiens is something we can all agree

It looks like our lives could be closer to normal before we reach this fall

It would be nice to sit back and watch the Montreal Canadiens win it all

We’re almost finished with the Covid and are just happy to survive

It would be the icing on the cake if this team wins number twenty five

I got my second shot today and I’ll be watching the opener tonight

I’m confident that Montreal will give them quite a fight

This country will be consumed by this series and be on everybody’s mind

The first thing is not to panic if this hockey team falls behind

Remember the first round when they were on the ropes?

They will be soaking up all our energy and keeping up our hopes

Just four games to win is what this franchise will try to attain

If Florida wins it all, the Stanley Cup they will retain

The Canadiens haven’t drank from Lord Stanley since nineteen ninety three

The games will all be televised for everyone to see

I hope that Price and company hoist the cup, yes I really do

I will be back cheering for my Blackhawks once next season starts anew

My wife and I were spending another quiet night alone

When the silence was interrupted by the ringing of my phone

It was our mobile phone company that was on the other end of the line

Hello, yes it’s me and we are both feeling fine

Then she continued on her worn out rehearsed spiel

For some reason on this evening, it garnered some appeal

I always had a steadfast no to any upgrade in the past

Somehow for some unknown reason I gave into it at last

The mobiles that we have are both so out of date

We were promised the latest model at a better rate

I thought I could use more data for my daily walk

The last thing I need it for is to stop and talk

Lately I’ve been using a radio when I  walk around

Using the headphones doesn’t kick off the speaker’s sound

So when I roam the city listening to the deejay’s song

Whoever I am close to is able to sing along

Now I am carrying a cell phone and this radio from place to place

With one in each pocket, it’s doesn’t leave me a whole lot of space

I can’t hear my phone ring when  someone wants to keep in touch

Even though the phone’s on vibrate, I seldom feel it much

So I figured with this new fangled item, it could do everything I need

I told her just to sign us up and now I could succeed

Three days later they delivered them to our front door

When we finally unpacked them, it turned out to be quite a chore

The woman promised us that the sim cards would be installed and ready to go

They were both nowhere to be found, so I called to let them know

They insisted that I can just go to their store and pick them up instead

I didn’t appreciate the tone he used when he told me what he said

I told him I would be visiting his kiosk and dropping the phones off there

I told him we were promised sim cards but he just didn’t seem to care

So I packaged up the phones and headed to our local mall

When I answered all my Covid questions I was told to make a call

I would have to make an appointment in order to have my say

So I left there more steamed and scheduled one for the next day

In  the meantime I calculated with precision how much data I  would use

Signed up with another provider after all of that abuse

It wasn’t long before the new package made it here

I’ve been listening to the new phone and the music is crystal clear

Now I can enjoy it and nobody else can hear

No sweat about the data, there’s nothing now to fear

Each day I find new things on this gadget that I missed the day before

There are so many extras, I couldn’t ask for more

I was using my device and couldn’t believe what I seen

There was an icon of a radio buried on the second screen

It lets me tune into the stations that I enjoy everyday

It doesn’t require one byte of data and is free for me to play

The plan that I am locked into I won’t need that much at all

This poem is now finished, I have to make a call

How can a man filled with so much hate

Deliver a Muslim family such a tragic fate?

Three generations that totaled five

Four now dead, just one will survive

The one who lived is only nine years of age

His whole future destroyed by an act of rage

This was no accident, it was a well formed plan

Conceived by the mind of a twenty year old man

The Afzaal family were just walking down the street

Chased down by Nathaniel Veltman who was in the driver’s seat

A black Dodge Ram equipped with a bull bar on the front

Was the weapon of choice for this tragic stunt

He was wearing a military helmet and body armour as well

This is what two of the witnesses were to tell

After parking his vehicle he instructed a taxi driver to call the local force

I guess the way he was attired he was expecting the worse

He instructed the cabbie to record his arrest

Perhaps he wanted to remember his “Satanic” quest?

London Ontario is where this scene was played

Now this Muslim community is so afraid

It’s just been over four years since a Mosque was attacked in Montreal

Six men were killed and seriously injuring nineteen people in all

In Quebec they passed a Laicity Act two years after that attack

Sympathy for these murdered victims is something that they would lack

This law prevents Muslim women from wearing the hijab when they are teaching school

This is just one career choice that was affected by enacting this rule

So a bad case of Islamophobia has reared its ugly head

Perhaps with what has transpired, we can show some sympathy instead?

How come it always has to take a crisis to stir some common sense?

There has to be someone murdered to come to their defense?

These people are immigrants from another land

It’s time to recognize their plight and begin to understand

Canada used to be a nation where anyone could feel safe and secure

This was our reputation and a major part of our allure

Mass killings on our home soil are still considered rare

The fact is that they are increasing and we must be aware

We can’t be complacent and let this incident slip by

We must act upon it before someone else has to die

This isn’t our Canada, it’s never been this way

We can’t be compared to the States who have hundreds murdered every day

The outpouring of sympathy shown can all make us proud

We have to show that this episode must not be allowed

The Muslim people are fragile and have every right to be

To restore faith in their new home is up to you and me

This proclamation is now in effect and don’t dare ask when

It’s time to let the world know in Canada, you are safe once again

All of these cultures we must learn to comprehend

In doing so we may achieve the honour of being called their friend

Religious orders sent out across our land because they had souls to save

These same people sending children to an early grave

The first thing that we all must understand

The territory we inhabit never was “our land”

It belongs to the people that we choose to abuse

Has this latest horror finally lit the fuse?

While searching the Kamloops residential school grounds

The graves of two hundred and fifteen children were found

This was just one facility and there are so many more

When they survey all these sites, what will be the final score?

It may come as quite a shock to hear this telling news

But not to all these indigenous people that the government chose to abuse

This cruel saga is now over a century old

Bureaucrats ignoring all the stories that they were told

Decade after decade they chose to send them there

Only emphasizing that they didn’t really care

The Catholic Church were the ones chosen to run these schools

They set all the benchmarks and enforced all their own rules

They were sent out to “civilize” all these tribes and make them right

They went about it by using intimidation and fright

These poor people didn’t have a voice

Their children were abducted, they really had no choice

Some taken at gunpoint and lead away

The survivors and their families are still suffering today

These children who were happy and always free to roam

These establishments of hell would now be their home

The nuns and priests were now put in charge of their care

These poor unfortunate kids were now living a nightmare

Their spirits were eventually crushed and lost their sense of pride

Those that attended still wonder how they were able to survive

This has been a huge burden on their population as a whole

This mental and physical maltreatment has taken quite a toll

These children were raped, beaten and murdered, their stories never varied

The only reason government is listening is because they know where the bodies are buried

The Prime Minister apologizing and saying the Vatican is to blame

Although the Canadian Government financed it all, it really is a shame

Over one hundred and thirty schools of this kind found along our way

There are still a dozen of them operating today

The plan is to search them all that will come at quite a cost

They should be accountable for every child that was lost

There is no way we will be able to atone for all the wrongs we made

As a nation we are responsible and should be totally dismayed

There will be thousands of bodies found once everything is done

This nation must take the responsibility for every single one

The fact that this group today is still often maligned

Look at all the missing indigenous women they still cannot find

Reservations with no clean water and houses not fit to live in

When will all this promised reparation finally begin?

It’s time to tend to all of these regardless of the cost

This will never be sufficient for the lives that they lost