Middle of Nowhere Caroline Adderson GROUNDWOOD BOOKS HOUSE OF ANANSI PRESS TORONTO BERKELEY
For Joan and Graham Sweeney
1 I HEARD A SIREN in my sleep I thought it was Artie but the sound came closer and got louder Then just outside our apartment building it stopped But not before it woke Artie who picked up exactly where the siren left off Wa-wa-wa Artie went A light swept through the room then again painting the walls red each time The police Not exactly who I wanted to see I stared at the lights hoping they weren’t for us while Artie wailed on and on He can be hard to stop Then I remembered the PNE and the giant beam that shines out of the fairground and circles the whole sky at night Look at that light I told Artie Do you remember the Exhibition last summer He stopped wailing just like the siren and sat up staring at the red swirls Is there a ferris wheel outside Let’s look I said We got out of bed and opened the curtains the rest of the way It wasn’t the police
