Americana
Travels in a strange land...
We start in Australia and my old
home town with this once
upon a time sunrise -
now a fading
sunset
Memory wrapped, ghost dust gathered moth
balled, unhomed, once
bright, shiny now
become mono
chromed
But it gave me a thirst for other places
just like that so, years later,
out along this aching
fading road in
far Nevada
The Warm Springs Bar & Cafe -
population: 4 Bighorn Sheep
(look closely centre left) -
plus rocks and
crumbling
hills.
Then to Currant, crouched at a crossroads - Grand
Army of the Republic Highway
marching on beyond to
something like
nowhere from
some place
somewhere
else.
We paused there in the abandoned lot, breathing bone
dry air then left the building far behind
because driveway service
in Currant, Nevada,
currently
just is
not.
Even though the next gas is
111 miles further on down
an otherwise
uninhabited
road.
For this was in….
Where anything can happen and sometimes feels
as if it all already has. Where even today
in Death Valley Junction
yesterday looks
like this
And here in Goldfield another garage lies waiting
Under a faded sky and the heart pulses,
travelling, the eye sees, the mind
pauses, knowing all
things ultimately
end - even
driveway
service.
Then last in Shoshoni Wyoming, the light lending substance, the day sending…
Two fresh cups of emptiness -
(waiting inside) -
delicious
just for
us
Outside, this old
old Oldsmobile
lies rusting in
in the sun -
stilled.
And we stand there wondering, imagining what
this world of ours will one day become
and if, eventually, the Shoshone
themselves will get the
very last of words -
the Ghost Dance
prophecy finally
fulfilled.
Notes:
Version on Substack has one extra Photo (I hit the email size limit). All photos by me.
The Ghost Dance: In the late 19th century, as the invasion and devastation of First Nation lands and peoples reached a peak across the Western USA, the spiritual leader and shaman, Wovoka, of the Northern Paiute nation, received a vision during a solar eclipse.
Wovoka taught the “Ghost Dance” - a version of traditional Circle Dance ceremony - and his followers believed that proper practice of the ceremony would restore balance to the world. The dead would be reunited with the living, and would help fight the invaders. The Europeans and all their works would be banished from the land and the great buffalo herds would return.
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-gilded-age/american-west/a/ghost-dance-and-wounded-knee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Dance
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Really loved this one, David.
Fun roadtrips! I'll be in Arizona in April and will be in the desert.... When not in urban decay areas, "desert decay" hosts the most opportunity to see times of yore.