We Are Our History, We Will Be Our History
By Dustin Howard
Photo by Dustin Howard.
Reno has been my adopted home for six years now, and in those six years, I’ve developed a true love for the beauty of the untamed West and the drama of the natural landscapes around us. The history of our state, and indeed, our country, is a brutal one. We are born from war–even Nevada’s state motto, “Battle Born,” acknowledges this provenance. We live on stolen land and grow wealthy as people and a nation from its resources, and many people experienced great tragedies trying to scratch a living in this high desert. And yet, Nevada became a place of quiet history with tremendous contributions.
Few outside of Nevada understand the significant impact the state and its resources had on the Civil War, or on the history of westward expansion (for better and worse). Virginia City, often touted to visitors as having once had a population larger than Los Angeles, was the epitome of the “Spirit of the West,” if such a thing existed, full of everything one might expect to see in a wild west mining town–cowboys, gamblers, miners, and outlaws. It even attracted the likes of President Grant and a young Mark Twain–a connection to Missouri, my home state, which I endlessly delight in. But Nevada is much more than that; it is and has been a place of great cultural and historical significance. It is something that only those who live here can truly appreciate, perhaps explaining why Nevada pride runs deeper in us than other citizen’s love for their home states.
Among all of that, or maybe in spite of it, one thing remains unchanged–the power, magnitude, and vast majesty of the high desert. It reminds us that as impermanent and changing as we are, it remains the same, indifferent to our goings-on and mortal preoccupations. The mountains, the desert, the sagebrush, and scrub–however long we’re here, it will still be here long after we’re gone. It is this idea that I hoped to capture in word and essence; and so I’m delighted to share my poem, Boomtown, with you for the first time. Enjoy.
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Photo by Dustin Howard.
Boomtown
By Dustin Howard
That’s the way it always starts
the slow roll, tumbled dust
the uprooted sage set about its sojourn,
a desperado on the desert plain
lifted on zephyr winds,
that charging mare off the mountain’s eastern slope,
racing steed resolved to blow that lonesome weed
through the dry brush,
little devils nettled in the scrub of undiscovered country
where settled meddlers dredge the exhausted silt
till the toiled earth for its precious lodes
leave nothing but a dearth of empty dirt and soiled dreams
in the muddy streets of Boomtown.
On it rolls
footprints too faint to leave a trace,
transient as the prospectors come to seek fortunes
on a transcontinental rail of rare chance
who like the weed uproot,
come to claim their stake in the bedded rock out west,
nothing more at stake than their whole futures
gambled like chips at the poker table
where every seated player has an ace up their sleeve,
still the weed is carried on the breeze
caring not about cheats and thieves
but the interminable sway
the invisible strings that move it on its way
into the churning gulley or down the breeching canyon gulch
on and on and on
knowing no peace but paying no mind
to the troubles of the ones above,
far beyond that sheer cliff and the rafting waters that take it on,
occupying the busied streets of Boomtown
where they know no peace and pay no mind
to the tumbleweed long gone,
preoccupied by the rising river’s tide
that keeps prosperity’s tantalizing fruit just out of reach,
the fool’s errand never come to fruition,
still they dream on and on and on.
That’s the way it always starts.
Dustin Howard is the former City of Reno Poet Laureate (2021-2023) and a grant writer for the Food Bank of Northern Nevada, with over a decade of dedication to nonprofit organizations and to telling the stories of people. He is the author of the supernatural thriller novel, Breakvale, three collections of poetry, and Every Day Poetry, a poem-a-day instructional poetry manual. He resides in Reno, Nevada, though his heart will always belong to the Ozarks. Learn more at dthbooks.com.
Double Down Blogger photo courtesy of Dustin Howard.