For me, one of life’s great joys will always be discovering a song that makes sense of the moment in time I find myself existing in. Whether that moment calls for raucous dancing, ugly crying or an urgent rally cry. Indeed, it is the latter I gravitate towards these days. Once I find that perfect feeling encapsulated in song, I play it on repeat for weeks. A recent example is Boy Golden’s ‘Suffer,’ the debut single off his new album ‘Best of Our Possible Lives.’
Stuck in the routine of my “ordinary fight”, I first heard Boy Golden’s Tom Petty-esque voice sing out “we sit in our living rooms / and become what we consume,” through my car radio and immediately paused. Someone had finally said it, that ordinary people are suffering as the wealth gap continues to grow, that we’re kept so busy simply trying to survive so there’s no fight left for anything else. How we’re brainwashed into villainizing those “masterpieces” sleeping on the streets when we should be questioning where our own hard-earned money is going. How the adage “bread and circuses” still holds true except now it’s alcohol, “white bread and trashy TV” that distracts the masses. I’m left wondering how this song has only 61,000 views on YouTube, while my dog’s stupid Instagram reels are in the millions.
This ability to galvanize the public and incite change will always be one of my favourite things about art. Indeed, Canada’s requirement insisting 35% of our radio broadcasts contain Canadian content remains one of the last holdouts in this late-stage capitalist society. While the wealthy continue to dismantle government systems meant to curb the growing wealth gap, the CRTC’s regulations allow an artist like Boy Golden, a man from Winnipeg, to receive airtime on a Toronto radio station alongside the world’s biggest pop stars.
I am always amazed how often I’m drawn in by Canadian artistry before I even realize it’s Canadian. It is a feeling of coming home I can’t quite put into words; there is always a texture, a sincerity, a collective consciousness that resonates with me. It is something that allows me to feel seen. In a world where wealth and attention are hoarded by the few, songs like Suffer remind me that poetry is everywhere and we can become collectively aware even while fighting our “ordinary fight.”
Indeed, if we “become what we consume,” I will consume Canadian music every time.
— Melissa Thorne (she/her) lives on the traditional and treaty territory of the Michi Saagiig and Chippewa Nations (Cobourg, ON). She is the author of two chapbooks, Augury, and What do we do with all this being?, both forthcoming in 2026. Her recent poetry is published in Room, Pinhole Poetry, and WEI Magazine. Follow her on Instagram @melissa_thorne_poetry.
You can read Melissa Thorne’s poem "Limber Willows" in Issue 308 (Summer 2026) Disability: The Revolution. Order the issue now:
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