Montana Wildhack Read Aloud by Kristie Betts Letter

Montana Wildhack Read Aloud

Kristie Betts Letter

Time and time again our eyes were brought together
by the book we read; our faces flushed and paled.
--Dante Alighieri

a push from the narrative nest streaming wordbrook chasing a girl who burned
with cities with Hojo parlors to dance despite machine guns

of fantasies yet unread penned by Mr. Trout metaphysics, says Montana failed
science fiction alternate selves I am Kilgore. I’m Kilgore.

we’re all in the wilds of Montana softening pages quickening fingers print pats
the heart breathless movement time-travel birdsong in her mouth

leave it to unabashed voyeurism through bars to offend but her reveal
in the back of the bookstore, now dances unfettered resistance

later schooling cast shadows about hostess and fetish or drawing Montana
topography overshadows (finger)printed pages words in flight

on the disappearance beneath big skies of Dresden, dolls keeping what’s beneath
the covers deep inside so it goes away eventually but what remains:

one hand (Montana’s) lifts dusty sci-fi softcover

Kristie Betts Letter's poetry collection Under-Worldly came out in April from Editorial L’Aleph. Other works have appeared in The Massachusetts Review, The North Dakota Quarterly, Washington Square, Passages North and The Southern Humanities Review. She's won several teaching awards in Colorado for forcing Hamlet on high school seniors, and also plays a mean game of pub trivia.

ISSUE FIFTEEN: Lastly, My Seer | next poem →