Flight of the Roller-Coaster

Souster, Raymond (1921 - 2012)

Original Text

Collected Poems of Raymond Souster, Vol. 1: 1940-55 (Ottawa: Oberon Press, 1980): 316. PS 8537 O87A17 Robarts Library

(Old Sunnyside Beach, Toronto)

1Once more around should do it, the man confided ...

2and sure enough, when the roller-coaster reached the peak

3of the giant curve above me, shrill screech of its wheels

4almost drowned out by the shriller cries of its riders --

5instead of the dip, then the plunge with its landslide of screams,

6it rose in the air like a movieland magic carpet, some wonderful bird,

7and without fuss or fanfare swooped slowly above the amusement-park,

8over Spook's Castle, ice-cream booths, shooting-gallery;

9then losing no height made the last yards across the beach,

10where its brakeman cucumber-cool in the last seat solemnly saluted

11a lady about to change to her bathing suit:

12ending up, as many witnesses reported later,

13heading leisurely out above the blue lake water,

14to disappear all too soon behind a low-flying flight of clouds.

Notes

1] Sunnyside Beach: the amusement park and public beach on the shores of Lake Ontario, just off Lakeshore Boulevard and south of Parkside Drive, in southwest-central Toronto, popular from the late 19th century to 1955-56. Pictures of the original roller-coaster (as well as the one reconstructed in 1932-33), named, appropriately, the Miller "Flyer," can be seen online at the Coaster Enthusiasts of Canada Web site (about 1923-24, 1926, 1932/33, 1937). See also the history by Richard Bonner. The park was closed to make room for the present Gairdner Expressway, which separates Toronto from its shoreline and is generally chock-a-block with traffic. Back to Line

8] Spook's Castle: "a haunted funhouse or walk-thru," according to the Coaster Enthusiasts of Canada Web site, which includes a postcard picture. Back to Line

11] Changing booths were fenced off but apparently open to the sky. Back to Line

Publication Start Year

1955

Publication Notes

For what Time Slays (1955)

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

2006

Rhyme

Off-rhyme at poem's end

Special Copyright