Montelbaans Tower, Amsterdam by Sarah Adkins The clock tower reads XXX and I can't help but think there's some cosmic irony in what XXX has come to mean stamped on porn videos and sex parlors when the red light district dominates many tourists ideas of what Amsterdam is Well, that and pot, with cheese, clogs, and windmills as an afterthought (who thinks of the Hague?) But once, XXX stood proud over the city Sarah Adkins United States Sarah Adkins holds a B.A. in Writing from Mount Union College in Ohio where she was the recipient of the Stephan Family Prize for Writing and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2003.  Her works have been published in TPQ (The Pittsburgh Quarterly) Online. She currently lives in Maryland, USA.