“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air…”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Wasteland Sojourn

Outside the miner's shack Joshua trees stand silent vigil,
expecting his imminent return, or perhaps his ghost.
Horn silver, weathered by rainwater from volcanic rock,
no longer strews fallow ground to lure the miner back.

In lieu, small succulents feed tortoise and jackrabbit,
replace the metal which only men could value.
Nevada gains a confluence of life in the exchange,
dry-lake flora and fauna bartered for chlorargyrite.

Barren mountains surround this desolation,
where nothing more than fungi lie in vapid dissipation
before the relentless punishment of the sun,
a lattice-work of valleys dissecting their loins.

I ventured here to purge my body of poisons,
exhale the vapors and biles of city living,
to rid the alien presence in my mitochondria,
and let it go the way of Silver State.




Poetry by Brian Oarr
Read 901 times
Written on 2009-04-05 at 09:23

dott Save as a bookmark (requires login)
dott Write a comment (requires login)
dott Send as email (requires login)
dott Print text


Peter Humphreys
Excellent evocation of the land, its ghosts and its exploitation not for what it was but what it contained. I have never been to Nevada but here Nevada comes to me. Peter
2009-08-06



Interesting description of a deserted mining area, leading to reflections on man, history, nature ... a rich text. And I love the Emerson quote too! :)
2009-04-09


Peter J. Kautsky
this reawakened powerful visions of this country as I passed through it many times driving Semi. Also, lived in Las Vegas and dreamed all sorts of dreams looking at the desert. I wrote something to this effect in the poem "Joshua Forest" . Enjoyed your poem
2009-04-08