Essondale, the Riverview

 

Was designed to be a place of mental wellness, a safe haven,

where hospital patients could sit under a tree and watch a raven

 

at play, never having to think of what the First Nations lost,

nor just how much the toll, to their healing grounds, it cost.

 

This healing place, once dealt out such horror, untold abuse.

Not the design of the visionaries, not meant to be its use.

 

The government shut it down for so many a wasted year.

Thousands of patients, put out on the streets, living in fear

 

as drug pushers fill their veins with poisons of the day.

Our governments indifference, leaves them no place to stay.

 

Now the government wants to sell off two thirds of the land

leaving one third of what remains in mental health’s hand

 

Cities, groups, citizens voices, the government does not hear.

As time approaches, were money in their greedy hand is near.

 

B. J. “ A ” 2

March 1st 2017