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Seth Abramson is the author of the forthcoming collection The Suburban Ecstasies (Ghost Road Press, 2009). He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, a former public defender, and is currently attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

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Nebraska
by Seth Abramson

1981,
                      &  for three days in Nebraska
penny loafers are the talk, the thirties sensation
all over again in one-light towns.
             Three days in Nebraska,
&  a hundred calves come out bloody &  new
             as Wahoo &  Alma &  Dunning hum

&  glow, turned liked searchlights into
Colorado, where everyone’s already wearing
             their lucky shoes.
It takes just one look at a boy from Ansley —
there is love &  there is money
              &  there is everything in between,
             touched by both —
one look at the packs approaching the drag
in Imperial,
as first &  second boy say hey &  hey to third
&  fourth —

             Three days in Nebraska,
              &  the bigger
the sentiment, the harder it falls, &  all over
the dreams of the pretty
             end somewhere in New York City,
but just this one time,
                                         just these three days
in Nebraska, the boys are clicking their boots
&  singing
              I wish I was here in Nebraska



 
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