Postcard Instructions Poem by Francis Poole

POSTCARD INSTRUCTIONS

Let us know the size of suite
With its treasure of amenities
And name of the rich
and famous nobody
In the elevator
Wearing red silk bathrobe with
Erect gold phallus
Embroidered on the chest.
Number of beggars waiting outside hotel
Behind barbed wire barriers.
How to order a cocktail in the local language.
Where to buy hand-carved toy pigs riding motorcycles
And what part of town has graffiti that reads
Paradise is wherever you are not.
Let us know if you find
The street of gold sellers
And the main square
With its God of Gastronomy statue
His belly bloated like a summer's corpse
And the immense garbage pits
Swarming with shoeless children
And buzzing with billions of flies
On the city's western rim.

--Francis Poole