Poetry By Amanda Hayden

       briantf CC




Boy in Montana  
 
He wonders what it was all for 
the momentary, still haunting fire 
his anarchist anti-conformist 
punk-is-not-dead                                        skate    lungs 
 
nightmares and bizarre daydreams 
stories inked into flesh, skulls, and teeth 
of what lies beneath 
shadows, knives, and creatures 
formidable angels too 
because his wings tremble at                 the       boy 
he pretends to ignore 
 
She wonders what it was all for 
on a cigarette run, doc martens  
propped up on                                             his       glovebox 
if she would have  
whispered yes  
under the fluorescents  
when their faces leaned close 
would their ache for each other 
have granted                                                real      asylum  
 
from the feeble, sadistic  
fowler’s snare concealed at  
the next corner  
set by a parasite to                   
groom and carve 
an unguarded, fledgling girl’s  
untouched body, systematically   
slicing it all directions 
until she staggered wounded in           strips, tatters 
blame posed while unconscious 
you know she asked for it 
 
They wonder what it was all for 
if their nascent pull, eager and sincere 
would have been a talisman  
against the violent nightmare or         bizarre daydream 
 
Ain’t life                                                            a          mystery 


Note: “Ain’t Life a Mystery” lyric; Bad Religion, “21st Century (Digital Boy),” Stranger Than Fiction, Atlanta Records, 1994.​



​Hayden is Poet Laureate and Professor of Humanities, receiving the League for Innovation Teaching Excellence Award. Her chapter, Saunter Like Muir, was published in Eco pedagogies: Practical Approaches to Experiential Learning. She lives on a farm with her family with dogs, cats, goats, pigs, chickens, and a duck named Dorothy.  ​