Homeless in Vancouver: Waiting for drake in Fairview

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      Minutes after 7 a.m. on Tuesday (May 3), a light rain was falling on West 8th Avenue, where I was busy extracting returnable beverage containers from an apartment’s recycling blue bin.

      I took my head out of the bin long enough to notice the two mallards loitering on the narrow fringe of grass between the sidewalk and the curb, just a few trees east of me—only my second such sighting of dabbling ducks in Fairview!

      As I watched this pair, one of them slip-slapped its way across the sidewalk and into the thin cover of a shrub.

      The one that stayed behind was the so-called drab hen. She waited patiently for the drake (and I mean the drake, not the Drake) that had ducked into the greenery.

      She didn’t move and she didn’t quack. She stood quite still, doing a sort of ballet pointe with her right foot and kept her gaze fixed on the shrub.

      For my part, having discreetly taken a photo without causing her distress, I went back to minding my own business, which, as I said at the top, involved thoroughly mining the blue bin for beverage containers.

      By the time I looked up again both of the mallards had ducked completely out of sight. 

      Stanley Q. Woodvine is a homeless resident of Vancouver who has worked in the past as an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer. Follow Stanley on Twitter at @sqwabb.

      Comments