Providential (redux)

This town provides:

Mothers smile and say hello, 
Fathers hit fungo to their sons,
Families rally around the flag,
White picket fences keep others out,

Ambulances cruise & never use sirens,
Dogs never bark or froth,
Pigeons align themselves from pole to pole—

On electrified wires.

What I’m Reading:

All that grave weight of America
Cancelled! Like Greece and Rome.
The future in ruins!

— Louis Simpson / “Walt Whitman at Bear Mountain”