west by northwest (by midwest)

This “oxen” appeared on the same stretch of sidewalk as “Trust Jesus.”

Follow the arrow, and you’re on the path to Temple Square. Again with the geometry: 5 blocks north, 3 blocks west, and you find yourself at the “holy heart” of Salt Lake City. A perfect rectangle. Cobblestone. Your path shaped like the stones on which you travel.

Dear Oxen,

That single quotation mark confuses me. It feels little self-referential. Not Oxen but “Oxen [sic]. Not really a tag, but a quote of a tag. But not really a quote, either—not without that crucial second quotation mark. Do you only half claim it?  Half own it?

That arrow really gets to me, too, how it points at “oxen.” So many ways to read it. Pointing pedestrians (pilgrims?) to the “holy center” of the city. Marking the path to find you. Marking your territory (everything to the left belongs to oxen). Are those humps the mountains? Does the arrow descend into the valley? Wagons rolling over the mountains, Oxen as the logical end of the journey. Walk this way to see what “oxen” is all about.

Should I? Should I walk this path to its logical end? Finish the journey? Does that make me the “most oxen?” Does that make me oxen’s valentine?

-K