There is a statue of a lumberjack looming over the corner
of Louisiana Boulevard and Central Avenue. Nearby
they keep all sorts of horses in stalls and at least one of
the ranch hands is busy trimming Make Me Rich Lefty's
front hooves while dreaming of the day the state fair will return.
Men wearing imperial cowpoke hats festooned with feathers
and women in colonially appropriated squash blossom
jewelry rattle 'round upstairs. Their jingle and jangle is golden
or at least made from a mixture of internet-generated electronic
data and plutonium. You can get a hot dog wrapped in bacon
from the cart parked on a drought-damaged cacti garden
by the front gate. The scene was littered with lottery tickets
and elm seeds until the day-crew arrived with thorn-resistant
gloves, heavy metal music blaring from la troca.
- Rudolfo Carrillo