I choose my painted carousel horse, impatient for the calliope to signal we’re

about to move. On the summer breeze French fries, corn dogs and the cattle

barns where 4-H kids parade their hoped-for-prize-winning calves. Carnival

barkers hawk Jonestown Kool Aid, give away tickets to the Kiss-the Dear

Leader’s Ring booth. Funnel cakes compete with Marie-Antoinette pastries

fortified with Machiavellian, yeast laced with champagne conspiracies. In

the Scientific Method tent tidy rows of glass boxes display a two headed calf,

a “genuine” mermaid, testicles & vertebrae of elected officials. Pre-teen boys

& girls sneak first kisses behind booths along the Midway. I catch up with

my brothers spinning red lunch counter stools, ordering grilled cheese

sandwiches and chocolate shakes. We watch little girls become princesses

after their turn in the face-painting booth. “Fixing” the Ring Toss and Three

Card Monte, governing principles on the Midway but, hey, it’s the State

Fair. OK? I take my chances knocking down a row of moving ducks with

a small rubber ball. I win a key chain with a tiny yellow fuzzy duck. Cotton

candy machines spin pink & blue lies. Neon orange arrows direct fairgoers

into a Congress of concave mirrors where a Texas Senator inveighs in Joseph

McCarthy cadence. Blue ribbons are hung beside o 4-H pigs & sheep to be sold

for breeding or butchering. Fireworks signal the fair is shutting down for the night.

Lights blink off on the Ferris Wheel, in the poultry barn, in buildings of jams,

jellies & flower arrangements, over the bedded goats & shoats. In carnie

caravans “social contracts” for liquor & cards & whores are satisfied. The bottom

of my new red Keds, gummy with bubble gum, popcorn & cotton candy, pick-up

parking lot gravel. In my pocket a keychain with a tiny yellow fuzzy duck.

I plead with my brothers Do we really have to listen to the Atlanta Crackers

baseball game all the whole hour- long ride home?