errol miller
REACHING THE FRONTIER
Floral pieces
tabulating one's wealth at 0
a Texas-size story of the 20th Century
debt-drunk in a declining economy
power failing in Choctaw County
the art of putting together liberty
south of El Paso a Great Border
no one pretending there
a dotted line
an immense long frontier
running from the Pass of the North onward
beyond the town
a narrow muddy river
widening into a gate of golden arches
actual people huddle in battered brown havens
old Fords and Edsels and Studebakers
here two worlds collide
on the far side of the water
a man on horseback appears on the horizon
a hot wind blows
trinkets are dispersed: TV sets
racks of T-shirts and domestic gadgets
there is a glimmer of animation
there is a green motel with flaking paint
some simply call it The Valley
some the end of the line
a multitude of thousands and thousands
standing as erect as possible
as The Book is opened
a man wearing horn-rimmed glasses
peering out upon the fragments
of the richest society of Earth
with tickets punched
remotely broke
going down to rebirth.
