Bernice Aye
traduction du poème de Patrice Desbiens.)

I remember the way the station wagon cut thru' the night
Opening up the northern night just like a hunting knife opening up its prey
We're all there-
My mom, my sis, her husband and their kids; all of us in this car
It's Johnny B. Good Leblanc at the wheel; his face, blurry in the light from the dashboard
I'm the only one awake as we speed through the green sea, leaving green carnage at either side
My sis sleeps in the front seat, breathing in and out the darkness of the night
The night is unending, without any change
night unending without change
night unending without change
night unending without … Suddenly
an interruption cut thru' the endlessness
something moved
the windscreen became the cine-screen, headlights of Twentieth Century Fox and Gulf Western revealed an animal, an ANIMAL,
a MOOSE smack in the middle of the road, frozen in his stare at his destiny
hurtling towards him at 60 miles an hour
His eyes, his eyes his EYES, Holy Molly
the look
till the last minute
the shocking, deafening bang of metal against flesh
My sister woke up with a horrible scream,
as though the moose's spirit had given a final scream of death as it passed through her
Then silence
silence in our silence
in the silence
from Timmins to Toronto.

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