After snowmelt, the earth percolates
shards of glass, flattened, lidless cans, or, protruding from mud, the torso of a porcelain doll. Once in a while, the sharpest among us spots a Chinese coin or a chert arrowhead. This spring, I was delighted to find a rusted sardine can with the key rolled in place. I spend too much time watching where I walk, searching for detritus of dead people’s lives. These bits and pieces end up collecting dust on a shelf, in a box, on a window sill. I should be looking skyward, paying attention to the way morning light moves across the valley and gives relief to the mountains. I should be noticing blue flax tinting the hillsides, listening for meadowlarks, catching the scent of wild rose. |
AuthorNancy Harris McLelland taught creative writing, composition, and literature for over twenty years and Conducted writing workshops for the Western Folklife Center, Great Basin College , and the Great Basin Writing Project . An Elko County native with a background in ranching. McLelland has presented her "Poems from Tuscarora" Both at daytime and evening events at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko. Her essay, "Border Lands: Cowboy Poetry and the Literary Canon" is in the anthology Cowboy Poetry Matters . Categories |