burke: Local Language #19

Dog pisses on the cracks. de Saussure

said as much: Sign is a signifier.

We drive up the black highway,

reading the language of short signs

and translating the body language

of roadkill. The council writes its code

in spring yellow. Esoteric knowledge

creates them and us. Who writes has a plan:

who executes has a duty. This old town

has its own babble and squeak, from

the foul smell of the piggery up one end

to the sweet smell of processed oats

up the other.