Zorro of the rust belt

   We half anticipated these episodes

   of munificence, a dilettante drop-

   in by the ascending hero of policy 

   disdain, in this ostentatious res-

   cue of a factory by such impulsive

   favoritism, with fascist flourish;

   this WTO-busting subsidy of extor-

   tion-sucking rapture. Half, it ap-

   pears, is never bold enough. He'll

   be the whole butt of his gestures.

   So daring it is, to make us watch.

Breakfast strategy

     Between the breadbox

     and the pepper mill,

     it's hard to figure.

     That's not a dilemma

     or even alternative.

Thomas Isermann

Annals of remove i: December as we know it

In the desk drawer to my right
there is the Book of Common 
Prayer given to my father as a
young man by his fiduciary at
school. It is inscribed to him
personally, to a resonantly
historic name Dad never used,
and signed in the embracing
third person, His headmaster.

To this day, December marks

the breaking up of families

improvised in the rough and

tumble of experience in com-

petition, away. Young people

dutifully disperse, asking

each other only, how long be-

fore you might be near?

I suggest a refutation of the

fiction that this is immature.

These families, let us not ig-

nore. They are the ones which

conserve Horace. They are a-

ware of every crab we caught

in crew, every shirt that can

be borrowed, every note that

made us sing the thing again.

Why should we notice this, as

families are obliterated every

day, by repression, famine,

war, the divinity of walls?

Yes, intimate family frailty.

The essential answer stumbles

from the teeth of astonishment:

because this is also true, and

because they are right here.

December is parting, and this

is experience to draw upon, as

January looms to abrogate its

promise of reunion. We have no

precedent to resort to, not e-

ven a Commencement apprehension

of working for money, for that

repeal of learning, skill, wit

and poise, that separating tak-

ing of our heart, we never did

imagine, and have voted into

power.

  

South Arm of Compounce Loop

After traversing a picnic area
in a pine grove it follows an
old road southward, passing a
huge boulder at .13 m. At .3 
m it crosses a brook and turns
right up a very steep slope.

              The steepest climb on the Southern Tunxis.
              At .5 m the trail climbs gradually along 
              a shelf, crossing another small brook. At
              .75 m it turns right into an old road and
              thereafter is less steep.  

Shelton B. Hicock
  editor
Connecticut Walk Book
  Eighth Edition
Connecticut Forest and Park
  Association, Inc., 1970©