Tribute to Gertrude Stein

Three in a tree agree
to visualize a life of strife,
to realize
the hour of power
within
The Foshay Tower*
at noon
on Sunday
noon on Sunday
noon.

*This building, modeled on an obelisk similar to the Washington Monument, is in Minneapolis, a city that claims to be situated on the northern tundra, in a state called Minnesota. While this territory is too isolated to be verified, the name is said to be of Indian origin, although some residents claim that their Viking ancestors who crossed the area several hundred years ago in a drunken stupor, probably first enunciated the word as an oath, when they kept running into lakes filled with bathing Moose and slippery fish called "pickerel." They boiled the fish in a solution of lye and stagnant lake water, and called the results "ludefisk" after a delicacy first obtained from cod. When no one could eat it without retching, they cried out "man-eh soda!" and were not heard from again until spring. Minnesotans are still perceived as curious creatures who have their parades in January, drink nothing but Hamm's beer, and get very angry when someone expresses the opinion that Sauk Center ought really to have been built down in Illinois with the rest of the Sauks. It is still little known that "Sauk sucks" emerged from this controversy.