Perryopolis, Pennsylvania
It’s burn day where I’m from
and the smoke hangs like drapery
over the town that hasn’t produced
a noteworthy person
in two hundred years
The hardware store owner
committed suicide last week
now there’s no hardware store
and nowhere else to buy a hose
Tomorrow is Sunday
and the beer distributor
will be closed and there is
nowhere else to buy beer
in the classical sense
The bakery is closed again
demand for donuts is cyclical
I guess, and anyway,
the whole town
is watching its figure
The fire whistle howls at noon
George Washington once owned this land
Jaymes is a local government administrator and lives in State College, Pennsylvania. He was the back-to-back Pinewood Derby Champion of his Boy Scout Troop.