“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.