Boulder Canyon Project Act
[December 21, 1928]
This project they said shall be solvent and potable.
Thirty-five-hundred implements shoved the river aside.
Men and women hand over hand built a wall of kilowatts.
They needed nimble feet not to be a death toll.
The lake thereafter raised little boats of revenue.
She’s driving now to meet an amortized stranger.
The lake depreciates to a record this summer.
She encounters the worst front door in Nevada.
She’s the police who removes her hat to announce ironic drowning.
Alan Elyshevitz is the author of a collection of stories, The Widows and Orphans Fund (SFA Press, 2011), and three poetry chapbooks, most recently Imaginary Planet (Cervena Barva, 2013). Recently, his poems have appeared in River Styx, Nimrod, and Water ̴ Stone Review. He is a two-time recipient of a fellowship in fiction writing from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For further information, visit his site.