According to the Omnictionary, which I won't go in to, a paper town is a fake town on a map that cartographers once placed on maps as "copyright traps" to locate plagiarists. However, I think it means something deeper, something more. If a town can be paper, can people also be made of paper? In fact, I think most towns are paper, maybe more fake than those plagiarist traps on maps. All those culs-de-sac, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters. I'm a paper person too, and I guess that's why I'm so desperate to get out of my paper life, and I think that starts with getting out of my paper town to find another. I'm thinking Agloe, New York
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