Provincial

Page 10 from Max Ernst’s Une Semaine de Bonté

Patchwork walls
of a threadbare town:
homeless streetlights,
vagrant intersections.
Oh what charming ruins

the inhabitants must be—
snaggletoothed and ravaged
by their appetites,
huddled around kerosene
heaters and coal stoves.

I’ve heard they’re dangerous,
cling to guns and religion.
Don’t talk to them!
I’m sure they don’t share
our progressive views.

Still, let’s bring awareness
to their plight with
a hashtag. So reassuring,
that pound sign’s
tidy arrangement of bars.

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