Two Cards from Arenella

So good old Roy Arenella is on the road vacation, and he sends out more mail while on the road than I do. (I hit the road, briefly, next week, so we can use that for comparison.)

First card

Created 5 June 2004 in Connelly, New York, about 73 miles from here. Numbered “226C” (certainly the 226th item of the year, and I suppose C stands for “card”—but who knows if there’s a distinction between a p/c [maybe a “photocard”?] and a c?). Realizing his propinquinty to Schenectady, the card is titled “3 / Unexpected / Places / in Proximity / Upstate / New York” and lists the three places in southern Saratoga County, all within a few minutes driving from here: Burnt Hills, Round Lake, Half Moon [spelled incorrectly as two words to complete the pattern of two-word names].

Second card

Created 7 June 2004 in Saugerties, New York, about 60 miles from here. Numbered 228 ACC” just to confuse me. The postcard is an advertisement for a gallery show, but Roy has rubberstamped most of the information about somebody named Smith’s show. One rubberstamp points at the overprinted text and says “READ THIS.” Interspersed in the cross-outs is a text: “NO TIME / FOR POETRY / BUT EXACTLY / WHAT IS.” JACK KEROUAC.” The front of the postcard presents the photographic reproduction of a few water towers atop barely visible city buildings. Roy has erased the emulsion off the face of the card in a few places to create some windows into which he has inserted these words:

THIS POET LOVES PROSE

un violon d’ingres