National

A Quadripartite by Sheila Stewart

Research

walking all over us. Research me. Who
would say such a thing? An open
invitation. Search me, she shrugs, talking
to an old friend or her teenaged daughter,

but doesn’t say it if the police
pull her to the side of the road,
or cruise by as she walks home
from the late shift at the program.

Cops make a habit of driving slow
past women walking alone in Parkdale.
Helps to divide and conquer those
working the streets from other

women. We choose our allies. Who
speaks for who? Who speaks?
Where? We all want our picture taken
if we can give it the caption. Insider

knowledge. What we know and can’t
say. Stories told under cover of darkness.
To one person. In the washroom at
a mandated government training session.

Time to learn all about standardized
training plans. Stories we don’t tell.
Walk the researcher to the door. Turn
the tape-recorder off. The police

have their story. The papers theirs.
Woman’s body found in Parkdale.
Not me. Was she Maria? Or the woman
who stands in the hallway of the library,

unpins all the flyers from the bulletin
board and pins them up again arranged
by colour and size. I wanted to praise her,
but asked her to stop. To leave. Research

walking down the street talking.

In

out, on, under, over, after, ever, never, now, into, unto, onto, next to, near to, beside, behind,
beyond, bewitch, belittle, be little, litter, lit, literate, literacy, literary, lit her hair, straight, curly,
good, bad, white, black, deliver us unto preposition, conjunction, give us, and, or, but, because, until, teachers know their parts of speech, researchers
know what teachers know, they help them to know what they know, they know they know so much, know ever more, after, over, under, on, out

Practice

makes perfect, perfect sense, such sensible shoes, practice your alphabet, numbers, their names, your scales, create good habits, don’t make a practice of lending your students money, a doctor’s practice is worth more than a teacher’s, practice the blues, the tunes, what they told you, what you ought to say, what you have to tell them, what they want to hear

Research-in-Practice

cup-a-soup
pop-in-hat
hat in hand
double scoop