Canadian reservist Corporal Cirillo was
killed this day at the War Memorial in Ottawa,
while standing in his ceremonial and Scottish dress,
Glengarry bonnet, kilt, red garter flashes, and the rest.
He was a barrel-chested bouncer at the Club Absinthe,
an ordinary guy assassinated at the plinth,
by some crazed, recent muslim convert who was killed himself
by Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers at Parliament Hill.
At home his two dogs waited anxiously for his return.
He never came. One bright, red maple leaf falls down to earth.