Welcome to Pleasant Bluff

Caki Wilkinson

It's not unpleasant here. The chicken plants 

 and car plants grow like plants. Here, all the sames 

 are different, though a hell-bent countenance（支持，赞同） 

 persists in yards still plugging past elections 

 and latticed propane（丙烷） tanks. Here, names (like Jerry 

 of Jerry's Rigs) mean business; football games 

mean war. Here, kids attend Dead President 

 Primary, right off Bigwig Avenue, 

 and strip malls flank the Holy Testament 

 (whose latest message, God's grace gives us rage!, 

 has lost the c-o-u); the new Corrections 

 Department borders Three Sons Barbeque 

(run by two moms). Here, downtown is disguised: 

 the old PO a bank. The gallery 

 that used to be a mill, now capitalized 

 The Mill, sells space and photographs of mills. 

 Here, progress means, ostensibly（表面上）, a stage 

 of reclamation（开垦，收回）, from topography（地势） 

to toponymy（地名学）. But since the genius lies 

 in places, not in names, here, once you're there, 

 you'll lack an actual to actualize, 

 finding no oaks in Oakmont Cemetery 

 and only shops in Walnut Square, no hills 

 in Eden Hills, no Eden -- anywhere.