This Sunday, as I think I've already mentioned, Ada Books will have some out-of-town talent for you to ogle and eavesdrop on. One of these is a poet named Michael Robins who's written a book called The Next Settlement, published by University of North Texas Press. On its cover is a waterfowl (duck or goose) looking surprised (or annoyed or meloncholy) to find two arrows in its back. Inside its covers lie fifty or so poems. Here's one I liked. It's called On the Hour Beneath the Music: Every town should house a museum of torture, the obvious guillotine, a pyramid to straddle with rope, weights to tie & drape the ankles. The horse, which drags the body through the streets, is a mirror whose timely distance resembles less a broken body, less the punishment for crime than the carousel that turns with the century. The facade adorned as a carpet ride, dwarves & maiden tales, smoke over a gingerbread home. In every town the pigeons startle, turn, resettle atop a pedestal of the saint known for kindness. Once, men were caged & hung above the square. I couldn't get my keyboard to disgorge the cedilla for the 'c' in 'facade' and the ampersands are courtesy of the author.