Hippie Jim

They arrive from America in 1970

to escape the war in Vietnam

With his Belgian horse

given by his neighbour 

he hauls up rocks 

from a nearby river

and builds a little castle

in the mountains near the sea

They plant some cabbage

put up a wooden fence

Two years pass

his wife gives birth

and with their daughter

leaves every winter

leaving him alone

during the cold Cape Breton months

He walks barefoot 

through the snow

She doesn’t return in spring

alone in his castle

the townsfolk say he went mad

he walked up Little Grassy in June

and died with an empty stomach 

on a Sunday in July