Postcard from Earth

Am having a good time,

identifying iconic images;

most invaluable -- those intercepted

signals we studied from this planet.

Can conclude with confidence I’m in

Amereagan’s capitol,

the county seat of capital.

(You remember,

a fellow named Leadbelly bellowed

“it’s a bourgeois town.”)

But Sheriff Ronbo rides the range

only when bandits get too close to the county line; he

passes the time with his white house, not horse.

I heard the British whorehouses

were shut down by the first sheriff,

while snapping shots of his monument

(a phallic tower topped with red lights,

blinking). Another has a statue

of a sheriff who freed some slaves,

to move out of town and help urban renewal.

Sometimes people with different interpretations

of the early sheriffs come from miles around

for their own rituals at the monuments,

called “protests.”

Just saw one at the county “library”

(don’t know what that means, but what a structure!

big enough for three whole sheriffs! and they’re renovating it

just for us tourists!), but this time they said

“the library will not be used for political purposes.”

This was from Doctor Dan, the sheriff’s man

there (you remember, he once pointed out

to the committee of McCarthy,

idealism is misguided), as

they handcuffed the “dirty

KGB-outsideagitator-Sandinista-streetpeople-terroristarab-scholarreaders,

detractors from our way of life,”

and took them away.

(Put a comma in:

the library will not be used,

for political purposes;

it has a catchy sound.)

The local paper printed the story

in the “Style” section, writing in a strange way,

called “prose,” not like us.

The idea is, if

you string together long lengths of lines, like

“the President is correct that it is necessary to contain the communist

threat so that we won’t have to fight a war with our boys in San

Diego but we should work for a negotiated solution …,”

this is pure reason without emotion.

But the paper feels Ronbo

is crude; it says

“he or she” and “oppose prejudice” in its own

statements against terroristarab-Sandanista-KGBists.

The biggest poker game in these parts

goes on just outside town. The saloon keeper

is building an “excellent” establishment called “university,”

and says “the stakes are high.”

And a real shootout is brewing

between Ronbo and the town administration,

and he can’t get rid of some Indians

camped across the street from his house --

some stories for another time; have to stop

now. Wish you were here …

(from sometime in the early 1980s)

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