After Reckless Abandon

Image/Michael Cassera

Heather Lang-Cassera, named 2017 Best Local Writer or Poet by the readers of KNPR’s Desert Companion, holds an MFA in Poetry with a certificate in Literary Translation. She serves as an educator, literary critic, and publisher. You can learn more about Lang-Cassera and her poetry at: heatherlang.cassera.net. Celebrate National Poetry Month in April; and join us for live poetry at the Nevada Humanities Literary Crawl in Reno this September and the Las Vegas Book Festival in October.

After Reckless Abandon
By Heather Lang-Cassera

We drove east just far enough
to be one time zone closer.

We stopped for fuel,
& waded through

some sort of white light.
We pawed at cans of Campbell’s soup,

a water gun,
a box of Tylenol,

& a superhero
Kleenex box.

We became today’s
postmodern desert outlaws

a strange vying
I would never wish on anyone.

I was silently drowning
one moment at a time,

& it was always to that same
goddamn that’s-not-love song,

which still leaves me wondering
what is set to repeat,

but oh honey, yes, there is water,
still, here in the Mojave.

Versions of this poem were previously published by Architrave, and in I was the girl with the moon-shaped face (Zeitgeist-Press, 2018).