once upon a time the post office
delivered this letter to berea ky:
“To the president of a college
some place in Kentucky where boys
can work their way through school
do not know their address” years later
the burlington p.o. delivered a letter
to “chad walsh grumpkin hall vt” –
grumpkin hall is a tree house ten miles
from town! I myself have envelopes to
my grandpa simply “Dougan Farm, Beloit”
we can’t expect today’s p o. with its present
volume to be as creative as personal as of old
but it’s a hallowed institution underfunded – no
privatized trump p.o. will ever bother to deliver
my summer mail to podunk, vt – why even try?
2020 Jacqueline Jackson
This article appears in Making history.
