Behind Easterner Lines : Resource Speculation in Québec is a three-part series featuring Edmonton Weststar’s chief industry analyst exploring the potential for friendly resource ties to Edmonton’s most bewildering municipal cousin: Montréal.

Part two: Financial discussions with key industry players

A guitarist and saxophonist jam on Charlie Parker songs in a darkened city park
beneath a warm red moon.
A couple stands in the grass, kissing,
dun-den-danning along to the melodies.
Another couple on another bench drink a beer.
A younger man wanders back and forth, in and out of the park. A man paces slowly, asks me for change, rolls up a spliff.
A couple dances and passes a joint back and forth between them.

Parc des Açores
— a Portuguese name in French.
A person shouts for their cat.
Across the street, young men sit on a rooftop, drinking beer.
People in the shadows dot the balconies.
The biweekly fireworks begin in the distance.

A couple has moved to the swings. Four adults and a child sit at a candlelit bench, eating. Young persons arrive with their phones, saying “there are so many pokemon to catch.”

“And this is E,” says the guitarist.

The fireworks in full ka-thud,
an empty tallcan rattles.
Les chats errants errent dans les ombres.

A bicycle creaks. A person sneezes.
— À tes souhaits!
A person laughs, another laughs, another sneeze.
— À tes amours!
An airplane whirrs past, fireworks pop,
ka-thud. Another plane, another sneeze.
— Qu’ils durent toujours!

Les chats errants errent dans les ombres.
And the wind in the trees. Another sneeze.

Art Hudson is the Weststar’s chief eastern columnist, and acting director of western outreach at the Weststar East.