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Nancy Harris Mclelland
Poetry, Prose, Opinions about Aging from an Ex-cowgirl Octogenarian.


I wish I had a conspiracy theory
Then everything would make sense, the Bernie Bros and friends of Mike Pence. AOC, Ivanka Trump, and Cardi B would fit into the same...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Yet Another Poem About Not Writing Poems (Or, Showdown at Wit’s End)
Pleading a poem down from a tree, Coaxing a poem out of the dog house. Sweet-talking a poem behind its mother’s skirt. Tricking a poem...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Sometimes It’s Like That
I saw... my own figure... coming toward me, Goethe, Poetry and Truth I stand on her porch, try the doorbell, knock, walk down the...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Here's to Trina, the cock-eyed optimist
Strabismus is a condition in which eyes do not point in the same direction When Trina watched fourteen vultures with six-foot wingspans...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


A Buckaroos’s Lament
If I don’t know where I was, how can I get back there? Overheard in a bar in Elko awhile back I see the dip and rise of sage-covered...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Stopping at the Winners Inn and Casino Winnemucca, Nevada
You feel the heft of the glass door when you push it open, relieved to be safe from a blast of dust blowing across the parking lot. You...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Pareidolia: the perception of apparently recognizable images in random arrangements
Half-formed apples drop in midsummer heat. The jackrabbits on the lawn seem creepy. A whiff of death comes from fires in every direction....
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


My Delta Variation Blues
If I had a match I’d set my hair on fire. That’s how bored I am, preachin’ to the choir. If I had a B-B gun I’d shoot a crow or two....
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Euangelion or Good News
Somewhere there are dead cats with maggots, whole cities rubbled, and unrepentant youths gunning one other. Blood. Guts. Excrement. Ahem!...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Last Mother’s Day
I say, “You can’t go out in that! Look at the food stains!” She says, “Role reversal,” puts on the sweater anyway. We hold hands as we...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Time Really is Running Out
Your back door Time is a whore down the street Time is a cheat past your town Time is a clown Like Wile E. Coyote, Time spins hoary legs...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


My Dad Teaches Me to Saddle a Horse, a Father's Day Poem
I hear the scratch of the curry comb against the horse’s hide. When my father combs the mane and tail, I hear a different sound. After...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


A motorcycle gang passing rvs on interstate 80
Thirteen Hessians on Harley Davidsons blast past a Sandstorm, ride the tailwind of a Southwind, salute a Wolfpack chasing a Carabou. ...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


An octogenarian considers a road trip to see the London Bridge in Havasu, Arizona
The London Bridge in Havasu, Arizona is home to hundreds of bats and thousands of swallows. It’s not that hard to get there from here. ...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Drama Queens Are Everywhere
See that woman in a leaky skiff holding a bucket with a hole, yelling, “Help!,” not acknowledging that she is in shallow water near the...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


Camping Near the Rio Grande Rift
We put in a long day mapping outcrops in Canyon Madera, guessing the ages of the granites, the relationships one to another, Still had to...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


I'll See You When the Roads Are Dry
How will we know it’s a wrap? Time to take a bow and sigh, “It’s been grand and on behalf of the band, We’ll see you when the roads are...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


A Big White Dog Showed Up
A big white dog showed up in Linda’s yard. She thinks it was left by herders who summered up Snow Canyon. “Great Pyrenees,” she said....
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 13, 20241 min read


They Say We Come into the World Afraid
They say we come into the world afraid of snakes no matter whether venomous or not. Avoidance is the way we’re made although this truth...
Nancy Harris Mclelland
May 12, 20241 min read
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