Clark County Poet Laureate 2024 - 2026 : Ashley "Ms.AyeVee" Vargas

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Ashley "Ms.AyeVee" Vargas is an award-winning Afro-Latina Literary Artist from Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a woman of many hats with a passion for Poetry. Her work has been featured by The legendary All Def Poetry, Write About Now & Button Poetry. She has also been recognized by the Las Vegas Book Festival, Nevada Public Radio, & The US Congress for advancing the cause of literacy & extraordinary literary achievement. In 2022, Ms. AyeVee was selected as an official TEDx speaker for Las Vegas. She also runs a Las Vegas-based poetry organization, Beyond the Neon (@btnpoetry), focusing on poetry-exclusive events and community outreach.

Follow her poetic journey at https://linktr.ee/Msayevee

Cactus Blooms and Creosote

I come from the place of cascading mountains
covered with cactus blooms and creosote
Creating a desert perfume as enchanting as it is elusive
Perfected over a million years
Sun and drought
Rain and moonlight
A cycle repeated eons before anyone cared to notice

Did you know this is the place of ancient magic?

Mysteries of the Anasazi
Ancestral Puebloan and lost cities of the desert
Histories covered in dust
Hidden beneath alfalfa fields and cattle ranches
Where Gypsum roses glisten in the sun like desert glitter
Refusing to forget the ancient oceans from whence it came
In the silence coyotes sing siren songs long forgotten by human ears

Dark skies, ghost towns, and glowing cities

Southern Nevada is an acquired taste
Like moonshine & 3 foot margaritas
Many come and many go
Creating stories of luck and loss
Enlightenment and possession

But for those who stay this is simply home

Maybe it started off as a wayward stop
Somewhere between here and wherever they’re running away from
Maybe they were born into this divine chaos
Desert folk unafraid of a dry heat

Alchemists

Turning dust into farms
Sagebrush into cul-de-sac
and a dirt road turned into the most famous boulevard in the world

This is the place where impossible becomes possible on a random Tuesday night
Where strangers become family
and past lives blow away like tumbleweeds
Gathering around bonfires and drum circles
Howling at the moon while dancing barefoot on dry lakebeds
Bar crawls and nightclubs
Dresses twinkling like starlight in the neon and heels clicking on concrete

Finding beauty in the ordinary, the Mojave’s favorite lesson

Libraries and art galleries
Getting lost in books and finding yourself on the other side
A cacophony of coffee shops and open mics
Sunrise Chai Latte and a poem that will change your life
Standing ovations, finger-snaps, and realizing you belong here
Imagine expecting a desert and finding an oasis
This is the place of miracles

This is home.