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There is a little pick up hockey rink in Dixon Park, in a part of town known as the Teacher’s College District or the North End.

The park is just north of the Peterborough Normal School / Teachers College which is the largest surviving example of turn-of-the-century Beaux Arts architecture in the city. More information about the building’s history can be found here »

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Here is a local band named after the park with some nice black and white footage of Jackson Park and other areas around Peterborough. Their bio states that “Dixon Park is the name previously given to the area now known as Jackson Park in Peterborough.”

© John Climenhage 2020

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© John Climenhage 2020

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© John Climenhage 2020

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© John Climenhage 2020

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© John Climenhage 2020

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Maiden Lane

The opening of the right now
under-utilized park there
was overrun with folk pretending
they were voting PAPPAS,
until the hotdogs ran out.
Suddenly,
there were questions about Dean’s
voting record:
How can you council
downtown, Deaner,
if ya can’t vote for us
(like we voted for you)
in council
because ya own
the local
billiard concern?
and such.

They were really letting him have it
until a volunteer
returned triumphant to the park
classic 12 + 8 pack combo
dogs and buns
in hand,
so I voted for myself
to take two hotdogs,
which is unfair to those behind me
but is actually fine
because I am not at all
in the hot dog business.

-JM

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© John Climenhage 2020

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If you check the Google street view time line of this shed, you can see that it has not been painted since at least 2007.

Fleeting Light (on Edinburgh)

Daydreaming the world
unfried, it’s autumn
so we can forget
the Garbage Island
out there
taking over the ocean
until next summer,

down Edinburgh
I see the shed,
something comforting
about the worn paint
and peeling look;
the sun destroying 
everything surely―

Annie told me to watch out
for it, that this shed
hasn’t changed at the same pace 
as the rest of the neighborhood,
that that
comforts her,
that that
is a beautiful thing―

When I get home
I decide to search for the shed
online to test Annie’s theory,
and there it is, the immortal thing,
the online streetview photo
taken many years ago,
the paint the same,

its weathered rate
the same, casting the same 
shadow, likely protecting the same 
rakes and shovels, or
maybe there’s something fantastical 
happening inside 
the shed,

but maybe there isn’t,
maybe there’s just a small gap or two
in the old boards 
where a decent autumn breeze gets in
and meaningfully kicks the odd
rogue leaf around
in the dark

as if to say to 
no one like 
an unread poem

something
there
isn’t

-JM

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© John Climenhage 2020

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© John Climenhage 2020

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© John Climenhage 2020

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