once upon a time in a land
where Chinese miners were
murdered, the literati decided
to read about the lives of their
descendents, older and newer,
to check out the traditional chow -
not the kind Americans eat – to
play the gambling games, to learn
the lives of the ones made in-
visible. this is called progress, in
between the bar fights and in-
justices. life lurches forward and
sometimes it doesn’t. growth is
hard to see except when it isn’t,
except when it is held up as
a shining example of what we
won’t tolerate here. if you
make yourself small enough, we
may just let you be, maybe even
call youfriend. but you never know
for sure. watch how we treat
each other, and then you decide.
where Chinese miners were
murdered, the literati decided
to read about the lives of their
descendents, older and newer,
to check out the traditional chow -
not the kind Americans eat – to
play the gambling games, to learn
the lives of the ones made in-
visible. this is called progress, in
between the bar fights and in-
justices. life lurches forward and
sometimes it doesn’t. growth is
hard to see except when it isn’t,
except when it is held up as
a shining example of what we
won’t tolerate here. if you
make yourself small enough, we
may just let you be, maybe even
call youfriend. but you never know
for sure. watch how we treat
each other, and then you decide.
news from a small town 51, December 2011
