When You Visit

Some day you will have to come visit.

I will take you around our little town

and show you the sights: the elephants

sleeping on the lawns, the peacock

we elected mayor, the large growth

Monroe Fish had removed from his neck.

You’ll stay with me of course

and I will prepare elaborate meals

of hot dogs and canned beans

and tell you exciting stories of

what has changed in our town:

your future here, should you decide

to stay, the way the women make love

night and day, the decline in the price

of a haircut, the annual redistribution

of wealth by firearm and how, all evidence

to the contrary, I really am the same man

you knew when you liked me better.