POEM
Nebraska
1981,
& for three days in Nebraska
penny loafers are the talk, the thirties sensation
all over again in one-light towns.
Three days in Nebraska,
& a hundred calves come out bloody & new
as Wahoo & Alma & Dunning hum
& glow, turned liked searchlights into
Colorado, where everyone’s already wearing
their lucky shoes.
It takes just one look at a boy from Ansley—
there is love & there is money
& there is everything in between,
touched by both—
one look at the packs approaching the drag
in Imperial,
as first & second boy say hey & hey to third
& fourth—
Three days in Nebraska,
& the bigger
the sentiment, the harder it falls, & all over
the dreams of the pretty
end somewhere in New York City,
but just this one time,
just these three days
in Nebraska, the boys are clicking their boots
& singing
I wish I was here in Nebraska
Source: Poetry (May 2008).
This poem originally appeared in the May 2008 issue of Poetry.
BUY THIS ISSUE »
Seth Abramson is the author of The Suburban Ecstasies (Ghost Road Press, 2009). In 2008 he . . . MORE »
