Please Stand By

PLEASE STAND BY

BACK HOME

"You can't go back home

to your family, back home

to your childhood”

—Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t

Go Home Again

Once you realize that—

The denouement of the novel

The film and the short story

Then you realize it’s shit

The sooner you realize this—

The better off you’ll be when

It comes to checking out the

Possibilities of who you are

You’re basically nothing—

But a shitty cow-patty plopped

Down in the Tall Grass Prairie

Beside the Santa Fe Tracks

BACK TO EMPORIA

“... back

home to a young man's

dreams of glory and of fame ...”

—Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t

Go Home Again

No more than a fucking—

Shitty cow-patty dumped on

The high plains down here

On the Fly Over State

So get used to it—

There’s nothing down here

Between the Neosho & Cottonwood

Other than you & Commercial St

We’re just simply a fucking—

Shitty cow-patty dumped down

On the high plains between

The Neosho & Cottonwood

BACK HOME TO EMPORIA

“back home to the escapes

of Time Memory."

—Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t

Go Home Again

So get used to it—

The Kansas prairie will be

Here long after we’ve come

And gone our way

Look at it as a gift—

You’re a nice privileged

Piece of shit that woke

Up and walked around

Say hello to your—

Fellow Emporians who

Like William Allen White

Once walked this earth