Friday, April 14, 2023

Up & Down the Backbone of Our Land

 

    This appeared in Chimaera.  


A little town believes it is immune

From simony and tsores; lesser folks,

The big’uns from the City, pay to fret—

They’re born to fret, conformed to fret; the shapes

Of worry make the fortune of their faces.

A little town does not believe that woe

Is overnighted by the sun: the bill

Of lading comes due elsewhere. Yes, they know

About the sparks and how they fly, but still—

A little town? Our lucky life, they say.

Their daughters, up to Megaplex, keep pails

Bedside to catch the tears, while sparking boys

Think murder is an artform, and their spite

Colors the closet red. The roads escape,

Then disappear into an empty plain.

And yet the cornflakes keep on selling out,

The hotdog buns replenished. Say, the Post-

Gazoo is covering the Aphid Fest.

You’d think, the kind of life a small town leads,

Pies in each pocket, cakes in every bed,

You’d think the roads ran both ways, but they don’t.


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