Hi all� As threatened, I am writing from the current end of my jaunt, mile 2,992, for now, and am happy to be living no longer upon Jarlsberg and peperoncini, but at the same time can acknowledge the value that travel does have upon us as individual souls. Ha. Get me on gin and ask me about Wisconsin (no offense intended to Badger-State-Subscribers, but come on). So, my last post, and also my first post, was composed in various bits of Montana, and sent from somewhere in Minnesota, and now I am in Maine, where the light is lovely and the retail is brilliant and the weather is as predicted. But still the memories of my trip resonate� Not least the long and Frappuccino, um, enhanced? night spent speeding across the Great Plains of North Dakota with B & S in heavy rotation still. I know for a fact that I was actually visually hallucinating for much of that, um, seven hour span, but in a GOOD way. I promise. And of course not in consequence of having taken any drugs beyond caffeine and lactose and glucose. Now that I have finished another pointless degree, I feel fully qualified to apply for a small business loan and seek to open up a poem repair shop. I hope that my first client will be the admittedly lyrical but ultimately incredible writer who would seek to rhyme �slag� with �Prague.� I love her posts, but am I alone in believing not a word of the fairy tales she spins? They all read like a Mark Helprin story. That�s a compliment, but then again, no one would mistake his fiction for reality, any more than I believe the candy-floss world Pauline L. Shivers (her REAL name?) describes, peopled as it is with mythical, larger-than-life Great Aunts, heroic I-prefer-true-love-to-massive-inheritance stances, Adonissian-yet-repugnant-Italian lads and all. And while we�re on the topic of the unrequited, the Laura Llew poem was fraught. It both energized and agonized me, the composition of this oeuvre did. I mean, think about the risks inherent in crafting verse in a rusty �89 Subaru rocketing across vast expanses of America in the lonely dark. Just hours prior a mechanic had laughed lightly and said, �I wouldn�t endorse this vehicle for any long trip�� But the main obstacle to literary greatness, as in any mind, was internal, not to be found in the logistical difficulties. Those of you who may have quibbles with the meter might think of the opening lines of the Iliad as recently translated by Fagles, or, maybe more productively (if you can stand it) track 5, vol. 1 of �69 Love Songs� by Magnetic Fields. Verse follows. Abort now. Save yourselves. A Poem, as Imperiously Demanded, for Miss Laura Llew, Composed Mentally on I-94 Between Custer, MT, and Mandan, ND, and Finally Committed to Paper at 3:15 am on 13 August, 2000, on the Glen Ullin, ND, Off-Ramp: In eastern Montana In haphazard manner I pondered Miss Llew I was real low on gas And the prairies were vast I�d be stranded, I knew. Near the Dakota line Shone a well-lighted sign: �24-hour fuel� I exited off As the car gave a cough The night started to cool. I�d be driving all night So I filled it up tight And got ready to fly. I had plenty of gas So I thought of the lass But I didn�t know why. The crisis averted My thoughts they reverted To sweet Laura Llew Although it was pleasing I could find no reason I hadn�t a clue. I was back on the road� In my usual mode (a little bit blue) But the Starbucks was rawkin� The speakers were squawkin� And my thoughts stayed on Miss Laura Llew Sorry again to those of you who hated the tautology thread. I didn�t realize what I would unleash, though I was impressed by the level of erudition my simple query brought out of you wonderful and entertaining people. Thanks. Schatz __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail � Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+