Las Vegas Morning Walk Poem by Tom Mair

Red, tan, pink, cream,
The soft pastel colors of the city's towering Western mountains
Descend and merge
Into the neighborhood's house's roofs
And painted dividing walls
Sky is powdery blue with wispy haze
Of the golden sunrise sky.

I sweep a few leaves
And pick up a few branches
to tidy the small front yard
Before taking a morning salutory stroll.

My Aunt says she feels the difference
30 additional years of urban growth
That it is not as dry here
In the urban oasis this part
Of the Mojave desert has become

Heading south, a block later,
Amid impossibly towering cactus,
Old desert pines and the street and houses
I spy a hummingbird 30 feet in the air
As a dragonfly flits around beneath
The hummingbird,
Symbol of life, elegant grace
Descends to briefly greet me!

Further, I hear neighbors stopping chatting,
Greet good morning
On the ground, beginner graffiti artists
choose the pavement for their practice
instead of the dividing wall
Maybe later they will have the skill and
confidence to beautify more prominent places.

Now a lady with only one arm walks towards Flamingo Boulevard.
Her footsteps shuffle slightly with one arm swaying.

It's time to return
To the house a group of men
Probably mostly from a foreign country
constructed in 1977
that for a few weeks,
will host myself,
and my 2 children and our cattins.