A Friend From Nevada Poem by RIC BASTASA

she got divorced and moving on with her life
for a third husband and she says she is careful now

not about love, because there is none since the first husband
but about money

outsmarted she goes bankrupt and now moving on in another place
las vegas, the city that never sleeps

the insomniac
keeps her accounts intact, from now on she tells herself while
sleeping alone in her new apartment

there shall only be use, abuse, disuse, and uselessness
sad, bad news i suppose

but she's real, her tears are salty and her sobs sounding like
a dog howling at midnight

not looking for another mate but who knows?
she's full time American now, and no one stops her from doing what

could have been, but not yet, she says, can be must be and will be
soonest