Chicago Tribune Newspaper Stand at the Oscar Mayer plant Madison, WI.

• Author: Butler, Nickolas A.
• Position: Poem

Chicago Tribune Newspaper Stand at the Oscar Mayer plant Madison, WI Just beyond the guard-shack Just outside the mill 3 newspaper stands, 3 cities, 3 headlines. I pass the news on my way into the mill Aladdin thermos warm against my palm From Chicago: 16 Dead In Copter Crash. Tomorrow--another 16 down. The day after--another 16 down, and again, and again. In fourth grade our multiplication tables only ran to the 12s, 144, my mathematical ceiling. 16 times three is 48. 48 Americans down, like sparrows and plate-glass windows I see a pile in the sand. And after the weekend: 16 Dead In Copter Crash. My abacus is fingers and toes and a forearm of ink. All the helicopters falling to earth slow as injured angels. In Iraq, beneath the sand, my Sunday school teacher said, "The Garden of Eden is buried like treasure."...