Perry arisen early was at the dining room table
having coffee reading the latest Biedermann’s
Weekly dropped off regularly by the large green
parrot. Carrera’s installments were wild webs of
outlandish lies and half-truths. Even the half-truths
were lies. Perry reading the raving chronicles
with bated interest particularly liked the way
he came off; Carrera portraying him as a forward
thinking inventor of unique gadgets that one day
in the future would become quite commonplace.
But telephones, flying machines & roadsters,
in their early stages hadn’t replaced the stagecoach
as of yet. The poet seemed to have a fondness
for depicting Lady Medusa with her hoop skirts
raised showing off her pantaloons to male advantage.
The dangerous vipers turned by the writer into
harmless green snakes. Perry understood this
too. The Weekly’s middlebrow readership
would be horrified if they were presented with
unvarnished reality. Medusa was beautiful. That
was the truth; but who would ever believe that.