We live in strange times, with much happening all at once, and also everything loud and quiet. One of those happenings has been an attack on the U.S. postal service, including by the U.S. President, by an attack of doubt, by recent bad policy, and lack of funding.
Of course, this occurs in the middle of an election. The Presidency, Congress, some U.S. Senate seats, many state and local offices, and ballot measures, all are scheduled for decision on Nov. 3, 2020. Of course, many will wish to vote by mail during this virus pandemic.
About the Post Office:
The U.S. Post Office dates back to the postal carriers, the pony express, founded by the famous Benjamin Franklin during the America revolution to ensure the sanctity of the mail against royal snooping.
For more, there are so many sources, including Wikipedia, and the PBS cartoon history, Liberty Kids (2004), which I watched with my children this past year.
Our Life and the Mail:
I am the author of Heart X-rays, with Marcus Colasurdo, published by PM Press as their 16th pamphlet in 2018. How long ago, it feels. Heart X-rays has an epic scope and tackles various issues in America, in technology, and in song. Some of this we wrote by mail, exchanging drafts and ideas and waiting for the juice that comes with waiting.
I hope we are not dating ourselves before cellphones and iPhones by stating that both of us just enjoy the mail, beyond its obvious usefulness. Or maybe, I hope we are dating ourselves! We should not forget the importance of a public postal service, for many reasons.
A Poem for the Post Office:
Marcus and I have written another book. Exchange by mail also helped. Our forthcoming poems, in Simultaneous Revolutions (PM Press 2021), has a poem celebrating the mail, and the living that happens around it.
In these pandemic times, and in support of our postal workers and public postal service, Enjoy.
ODE TO A MAILBOX
Mini-behemoth of promised motion,
short, squat, rounded at the top,
stationary caboose car
stamped onto the sidewalk
under a tall oak tree
of my neighborhood;
mute receiver of envelopes,
bills come due, womb
of congratulations, penciled
complaints, condolence cards,
halfway house for urgent epistles
on exodus from nearby addresses,
endangered species some would say,
or just a nostalgic warrior out-
numbered by the electronic horde.
Keeper of secrets, lips zipped tight,
painted blue and white, stumpy beacon
above the snowfall, perhaps
the futurists are right about you, yet
the mailbox still anchors
how I live, as much
as any azalea bush,
speed bump or stop sign,
or children’s hopscotch.
Ah mailbox, I will continue
to visit you regardless of the cynics
and their haste, and arrow
my evening stroll your way
for whatever else is said
in capitals of state
and salons of silver,
we’ve known each other
for these long seasons
and not once
have you betrayed me.
G. H. Mosson and Marcus Colasurdo are the authors of Heart X-rays (PM Press 2018) and of several books in their individual names. Their next collaboration of lyric poems is forthcoming from PM Press in 2021, Simultaneous Revolutions. Mr. Mosson’s Web site is at www.ghmosson.com.