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perpetual
rita wong
cindy mochizuki
2015
Copyright © Rita Wong and Cindy Mochizuki, 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without prior permission of the publisher or, in the case of photocopying
or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright,
the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency,
www.accesscopyright.ca, [email protected].
Nightwood Editions
P.O. Box 1779
Gibsons, BC V0N 1V0
Canada
Cover & interior illustrations: Cindy Mochizuki
Nightwood Editions acknowledges financial support from the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and from the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publisher’s Tax Credit.
This book has been produced on 100% post-consumer recycled, ancient-forest-free paper, processed chlorine-free and printed with vegetable-based dyes.
Printed and bound in Canada.
CIP data available from Library and Archives Canada.
ISBN 978-0-88971-313-0 (print)
sISBN 978-0-88971-079-5 (ebook)
dedicated to the health of your
spirited waters, dear readers
for all readers, big and small
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“The water owns itself,” as Lee says
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Terry Point walks us along Musqueam Creek,
Vancouver’s only remaining wild salmon stream.
Although most of Vancouver’s original salmon streams have been piped into sewers, one wild salmon stream remains.
Musqueam Creek still sees a few wild salmon return, miraculously, navigating the obstacles and pollution that the newcomers have put in their way.
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Creek lovers in Saltwater City (what the Chinese called Vancouver) also hear the call of the water.
Each day when I bike past
the buried stream
I hear it gurgling its
longing to return to
daylight & moonlight
to nurture ducks
& bracken ferns &
salmonberry & people.
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In the neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant, people try to reconnect to the buried creeks.
T Statlw, also known as the St. George Rainway, has brought them together.
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Water has two kinds of molecular bonds holding its atoms together. Peter War-shall describes these as stable covalent
bonds
(like those of marriage) and looser, ionic bonds (constantly moving, like random kindness to strangers).
Water is life. Water is home to micro life too – miniature helpers and harmers sliding around in the H₂0 molecules are miraculous little creatures.
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water bears, also known as tardigrades, are known to “die” and come back to life.
they hibernate through
hostile conditions and
reactivate when times
are better.