Bowering, George – “Place Names in the Global Village”

Place Names in the Global Village

George Bowering

Now they spend 14 million dollars
to change our street corners
from British American Petroleum to Gulf Oil,
dumping us into that Texas hole.

So their television ads
will make as much sense in Parry Sound
as the Indians falling off horses
in Nevada.

Now my British American credit card
will be honored in Saigon
where I’ll stop for a grease job
before driving my cargo of grenades

to the smiling Apaches
in the Mekong Delta.

Bowering, George. “Place Names in the Global Village.” In the Flesh. Toronto: McClelland, 1974. 57.