11,264. THIS BLUE CLOUD CARLISLE

THIS BLUE CLOUD CARLISLE

They've closed the latest Sears,

or the latest one I've ever seen

anyway. Like the one in Elmira,

which has been gone for 20 years

already. Just a space there now,

and some place with bargain shoes.

Right behind it though, is still the

small-size city cemetery, right

there in the old heart of town.

Facing McDonalds and all that

crap. Food for the missus is food

for the rats. All these graves here

run right near to houses too, and

the old base of the Sears foundation.

What do these dead wear? Foundation

garments from Sears in a ghostly

array? Chickamauga? Gettysburg?

Or Wilderness? Which battle you'd

rather be dead from, the preference

runs to you, like water underground.

In Carlisle, PA, maybe 150 south of

there, the bullet holes can still be seen

from some Confederate challenge to

surrender, back then, the day before

the Gettysburg Battle started. No one

did much of anything but shrug; so

Johnny Reb bombarded the town,

while marching right up the main

drag. That didn't happen in Elmira.

The gave them a Sears instead.
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(Maybe today it'd be a Chick-Fil-A)?