&c.

Note: this partly a found poem, pulled from the pages of the

Kentucky Gazette and general advertiser, July 29, 1806, found

at the digital public library of America (www.dp.la)

My head aches

from changes in pressure

and my vision swims,

replacing what I know is here

with a vision

I’ve only seen in history collections.

I stand

in front of

T H E B U F F A L O E

whose table

is plentifully supplied

with the best viands

the season can afford,

next door to

Trotter & Tilford,

newly stocked with

M E R C H A N D I Z E

received from Philadelphia:

fancy callicoes and chintzes

Longhorn and Dunstable bonnets

&c.

&c.

&c.

for cash in hand,

but my hands are empty

and my pockets

only hold plastic

so I turn back,

saddened

by what is lost

along the road

and burned

from our collective

memory.