Opening My Mail.

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Opening My Mail

He wrote me in a jerky hand
in care of the postmaster
no street address
no house number
just Poet
and my hometown

"My life is unsettled
nothing in the right place"
he wrote on yellow paper

"I didn't know where to start
but after I read that one book
of yours
I know I have to find myself a battered old Stetson
with my grandfather's history

"I don't smoke Prince Albert
but now when I smell it
drifting down the streets
I know my ancestors are seeking me
and I am half-crazy to meet them"

Notes

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McDaniel, Wilma. (2001) Borrowed Coats. Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, New York.
Courtesy University of California, Merced Library. Copyright owned by the Regents of the University of California.