So This is Nebraska

Kooser has long been a proponent of playful and fun poetry, and in many ways “So This Is Nebraska” is an intentionally fun poem. This motif can be seen in the image of the rundown barns, filled with hay and cobwebs, and hiding “broken tractors under their skirts” (Line 8).  A Sunday drive is also a relaxing source of fun for many, just as the pickup truck itself seems to be enjoying a type of fun: it “kicks its fenders off” (Line 15) and “reads the clouds” (Line 15) like it does not have a worry in the world.

Stanza 6 also maintains the motif of fun as clucking with chickens and getting sticky with honey gives a childlike image, reinforced by the image of a man being cradled in the lap of a pickup truck.  This desire to revel like a child in their surroundings escalates with a fantasy about “dancing on the road” (Line 26). And yet, as it so happens, the aspect in the poem that arguably has the least amount of fun is the observer themselves, who wants to join in on the rundown, uncanny festivities, but the most fun they have is waving out the window of their car.