The Toronto Harbour Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

The Toronto Harbour
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
My mother taught me not to
Succumb to a man's advances
Unless the man was my lawfully wedded husband
Or, as I add as an addendum to the original code of conduct,
The man had honorable intentions of furthering my career prospects with earnings;

Over the course of my soon-to-turn-52 years,
I have had some asides where physical needs
Dictated the course of sexual events
Where I have been mentally faithful to my husband
And let it be known in the land of Canada,
That no man has misused his professional status
And bartered sex for a career with earnings
And I have gotten by with my own brains;

But enough about me and the never ending saga of my
Ambition in the direction of my career with earnings,
My husband and I AND I alone have been watching fascinating, interesting and entertaining movies,
Please do remember that movies happen to be precis writing and cinema;

I watched Videodrome with James Woods
And the bizarre plot ended with the hero entering
A boat with Toronto Harbour written on it
Which reminds me of Harbourfront Festivals
And the party which a male friend of ours with his family threw
In a pub in the same location;

It was a special evening and I stole a moment to walk
Along the lake and the silhouette of the sky set against the backdrop of Lake Ontario
And the Toronto skyline spoke to my heart,
And said, This is my home which has become my native land;

Many years ago, using the first stanza of Sir Walter Raleigh's poem,
Which goes thus, I had said, "Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my own native land"
I had spoken lovingly about my still existent life in India;

But the times, they are-a-changin',
I look around me and see that there
Is the scent of summer and the calling of more of a career for me
Toronto engineers all the variables, both dependent and independent, in me,
To my satisfaction and if the principles of optimisation and parametrization
Demand that a curve ball be hit for a home run,
And a perfect three pointer be deflected off of the basket
And an ace be returned to lead to a series of breakpoints,
Toronto shall take me to where I need to be for my heart has magic
And my mind has the music and together, they have soul.