Saturday, May 28, 2022

Upon receiving a postcard from a stranger

 

Upon receiving a postcard from a stranger 


There was a time when i would get postcards from friends
and family on vacation and though the purveyors of the cards
always sold them using "Wish you were here" as the hook,
everyone one knew it was the seed of the facebook age's
"look how much fun i am having without you" subtext.
But even that had some semblance of love in the personal
message that came on the back of the postal missive.
Now i get requests to buy my house from people i don't know and
though Robert Frost's "Provide Provide" rings in my ears
I want to respond to the card without getting umpteen more treekilling requests.
In the words of Daryll Hall, dear Sender, you want "five minutes of what's
taken me a lifetime."
In the words of John Gorka, dear Sender, "I just want to make enough to buy this town and keep it rough." 
I know you want to buy my house and bulldoze it and put up a house too large 
for the land it is on to sustain it. And that dear sender, is why i will never ever
sell it to you.
Wish you were here,
Pluto Corsini