Cormac Letter

CORMAC MCCARTHY WRITES TO THE EDITOR
OF THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN.

BY JOHN KENNAN
- - - -

Dear Editor,

I enjoyed reading the article on Tuesday about putting a traffic light by the interchange of Castillo and Grand Streets. I aint know nothing about politics, but I seen too many cars hit too many light poles over the years. A man gets weary of it.

Just yesterday, my wife said be careful at that stop sign.

Why? I asked.

Well just a week ago the Johnsons got sideswiped by that guy who sells those turquoise stickpins in his shop on Esmeralda.

I forgot about that, I responded. And sure enough, I was careful at that stop sign. But the driver in back of me wasnt.

A truck carrying a load of lumber down from the old ancient pine forests or the newfound wrath of a somnolent god or just the terror of fading memories hit the driver square on the left side of his Volvo.

Oh shit, the driver said, just before his life escaped into an incarnadine tributary on his steering wheel.

I dont want to see that again. A traffic light is needed, and that soon. Or we will continue to inhibit our temporary souls which wait like cowed children at stop signs, as it always was before those signs crept like stalks from the Earth.

Regards,

C. McCarthy
Santa Fe

ripped from mcsweeneys