Poetry By Kris Spencer

       Jerry Huddleston CC



​Three Scenes from the Making of a Revisionist Western


He drinks alone. Says,
The world isn't a bad place, 
it's just big. Working on the script, 
he sits on the hotel bed throwing
playing cards at his reflection.
Writes in the margin: We all run
out of time in the end.


A Presbyterian town thrown
together with raw lumber.
It takes three weeks to build.
The unfinished front of a cotton mill
stands blond against  
the iron-dark mountain. 
Cattle lift their heads
at the sound of horses
ridden hard down gullies
and off through a river.
One night, the snow falls
so heavily it is like church music.


In the restaurant, 
there are fresh flowers 
on the pianola. The actor draws 
white and opens with his queen’s 
pawn. Still wearing his duster,
he eats cowboy food
as he moves the pieces.
I don’t think. Usually, I don’t think;
I hold it all in and then act.
In the final frame, he stands there 
in the doorway
one arm holding the other.




Kris Spencer is a teacher and writer living in London. He has a growing international reputation, with poems published in the US, UK, Eire, Europe, SE Asia and Australia. His first collection, Life Drawing, is published by Kelsay Books with a due date for release in early 2023.