“What if We Butt?” Poem, Willie Carver Jr.
What if we made out
under the mothman statue
and one of us touched his butt
and the other became his butt
and the square was also his butt
and the river swole up like a drunk
culvert when a big snow is melting
and the Ohio and Kanawha crashed
and then drenched metalloid cheeks
and then frenched adultoid creeks
and then they prayed in play and laid
the glut of butt in front of us and shut
the waters from the sky and ground
and such a gust of air to cuss at us
and kiss and butts and water danced
at us the statue is just standing there
behind the timeless wind of clocks
the red ahead is joy is dread is dead
the water slouching from the cusp
and us and all the town and rivers too
kept on dividing up a point where we
might kiss and smeared it in the dirt.
Bio: Willie Carver Jr. is a youth advocate and Kentucky Teacher of the Year. Awarded by Stonewall, Whippoorwill, the ALA, Read Appalachia, and Book Riot, he writes from Appalachia and believes everyone’s story matters. His novel Tore All to Pieces arrives March 2026.