Susan Kay Anderson: The Place I've Never Lived In

.

Clouds over a country road, Cass County, Nebraska: photo by MONGO, 22 Junr 2007

Nebraska, my tennis shoes with no socks.
The porch light is left on, always. The deep ravines
are feathers. McCook. The river. Kearney.
The feathers that are ravines.
McCook, then Kearney. Then Hastings.
Further from the river. The feathers, the sand.
This is where the railroads crossed.
I wish I knew more. Sand-lined river.

Everywhere we lived
my grandfather was lying down flat there.
He was a bear in the Alaskan Wilderness.
He was a salmon.

I wish I knew more. This park.
There’s the lawn mower. It looks like
A small tractor. The utility plant.
There are the unreachable men.
This rich plain. The robins glimmer
on the lawn. In the grass. There are no places
in this history where my grandma doesn’t pretend
nothing has happened. My cousin’s breasts
look just like my grandma’s. I am burning
in the Nebraska sun. I think I feel the prairie.
 

Dismal River, Nebraska Sandhills. Taken while on the river sampling for the plains topminnow: photo by Lindsay Vivian / USFWS, 28 October 2011

  Nebraska Sandhills, Hooker County #1. Seen from Nebraska Highway 97 south of the Dismal River: photo by Ammodramus, 12 October 2010



  Nebraska Sandhills, Hooker County #2. Seen from Nebraska Highway 97 south of the Dismal River: photo by Ammodramus, 12 October 2010



  Nebraska Sandhills, Hooker County #3. Seen from Nebraska Highway 97 south of the Dismal River: photo by Ammodramus, 12 October 2010

Court House and Jail House Rocks, Nebraska: photo by Chris Light, 17 July 2007

Millions of acres. Iowa and Nebraska. Land for sale on 10 years credit by the Burlington and Missouri River R. R. Co. at 6 per ct interest and low prices: poster issued by Commercial Advertiser Printing House, Buffalo, New York, 1872 (Library of Congress)

"The Covered Wagon of the Great Western Migration. 1886 in Loup Valley, Nebraska." A family poses with the wagon in which they live and travel daily during their pursuit of a homestead: photographer unknown, 1886 (National Archives and Records Administration)

"Parade of U.S. Infantry through Kearney, Nebraska, 1888": photo by U.S. War Department. 1888 (National Archives and Records Administration)

Panoramic view of Kearney, Nebraska street: photographer unknown, c. 1909(Library of Congress)

Street scene, Kearney, Nebraska: photo by Solomon D. Butcher, c. 1907(Library of Congress)

A residential street of Axtell, Nebraska: photo from an original postcard published by T. A. Carlson, c. 1908 (National Archives and Records Administration)

"Close-up View of Cabin in the Sky, Apex Tavern and Janie's Tamalie Cafe and Recreation Parlor." Hastings, Nebraska: photo by U.S. Department of the Navy, Ninth Naval District, Office of the Commandant, c. 1944 (National Archives and Records Administration)

Outside a Mexican restaurant, Hastings, Nebraska: photo by Chris Ford, 9 February 2008

A magnificent supercell thunderstorm cloud formation, Humboldt, Nebraska, 20 April 1985: photo by Stephen Corfidi, NOAA/NWS/SPC/OB (NOAA Photo Library)