Found Poem

    after information received

    in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch， 4 v 86

    The population center of the USA

    Has shifted to Potosi， in Missouri.

    The calculation employed by authorities

    In arriving at this dislocation assumes

    That the country is a geometric plane，

    Perfectly¹ flat， and that every citizen，

    Including those in Alaska and Hawaii

    And the District of Columbia， weighs the same；

    So that， given these simple presuppositions，

    The entire bulk and spread of all the people

    Should theoretically balance on the point

    Of a needle under Potosi in Missouri

    Where no one is residing nowadays

    But the watchman over an abandoned mine

    Whence the company got the lead out and left.

    "It gets pretty lonely here，" he says， "at night."