A new era unfolds  
establishing itself 
in a struggle between  
polar extremes 
in a yet unformed landscape. 
 
Between light and shade 
an ill-clad man rests his head 
on the tilted lamppost  
between the corners  
of Texas and Langtry Avenue. 
Moving in neither direction  
he stands underneath the pole's shadow  
at the corner of Fifteen Hundred 
 while the town burns. 
A white bag in hand 
glistens in the middle, 
as he grasps for a last bit of hope, 
for the tilted lamppost is his survival 
on these desolate desert roads. 
Out of frame huddling safe inside homes  
people flee this burning juncture, 
for hardship bears down on the country as 
boiling tensions ignite 
the contrasts within the nation.