Friday, June 22, 2012

poetry snapshots revisited: dominic james

My Photo



Nevada Crossing






In Jan… in back of a pickup,

black spots blotting out



horizons: only night and rain

eating up Nevada,



grazing hills and foraging

like the mythic antelope,



only cold and rain

but our sense of occasion



marked closeness in a tribal land

of cropped-up dreams.



Our driver was an older man,

indigenous American,



he stared ahead, said nothing

even when we stopped and Jen,



riding up-front in the cab -


trading stamps for dollars



drinking vodka in a can

topped from a paper bag



lost the plot – pushed wide

the door, pissed on it and inside



like he was leaning on the wind:

while we paused, like the old man,



uncertain of our luck, hunched up

against a painted backdrop,



headed for Reno, leaving behind

the islands of the salt flats,



heading on for Circus Circus

with ten bucks between us



broke, like that, gamblers in the wind

we’d hold or run like children



riding on the moment, sure,

then scatter in California.





Most recently Dominic has been published in the new American periodical, Kudzu Review and Sentinel Champions #8. Having written short stories for several years he now devotes his time to poetry, pointing out, it doesn’t much matter that he’s started late because it is the best thing. Dominic’s blog:






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