Nevada

This poem was recently published in the Sonoma County Peace Press - my first ever published poem. I've since thought about the poem, and realize it had a lot to do with optimism, and the hope that our new president would be able to deal with very complex issues. Most of us would agree, I think, that he is up against powerful forces, and it will be very difficult for us to change the American obsession with power.

Nevada
dedicated to Dan Frank and Lynn Hamilton, who spent a month in Nevada working for the election of Barack Obama, and told me their story.

dust blows incessant into the cracks
of a nevada trailer
parked desolate
gravel and grit
huddled like a beetle
in a mound of shredded posters
and demented memories

two people wonder why are we here
a tortured man in angles of disposition
invites them into the trailer
his gun for varmints he says
I don't like that fella in washington
the one like orwell he says
the one who must leave

yes we are here for that they say
the tortured man smiles
a smile of mysterious regrets
we can do this he says
we can find the damage
we can fix it he says.

two people reach across
something uncrossable
something filled with the impulse
of altered understanding
and say yes yes we can fix this

- richard nichols