From Behind the Postmaster’s Window

(an internal monologue, bored to death these last 32 years)

I can hear those fishes
calling out my name.
Oh, to be out on that lake
right now on this pretty day,
this pretty pretty day,
out there on that lake—
me, my rod and reel,
and those fishes,
insteada stuck here
behind this counter
asking would you like
a book of stamps with that like
the kid does at the McDonald’s
asks would I like fries with that.

René Saldaña, Jr., is an associate professor of Language, Diversity, and Literacy Studies at Texas Tech University. He is the author of several books, among them The Jumping Tree, A Good Long Way, and Heartbeat of the Soul of the World. René writes that “From Behind the Postmaster’s Window” is a found poem, a conversation he eavesdropped in on.