The Werewolf Poet Laureate by Greg Beatty Somewhere in Elko there is a cowboy poet

The Werewolf Poet Laureate
by Greg Beatty

Somewhere in Elko
there is a cowboy poet.
He watches TV,
drives a truck, but also
rides a horse and knows
the great wide open.
You see authentic place
in his manly verse.

Somewhere in Iowa
there is an Amish poet.
He reads books,
lights oil lamps, but also
weaves his clothes and knows
pretechnological silences.
You feel authentic voice
in his agrarian runes.

Somewhere in Alaska
there's an Inuit poet.
He uses bone knives,
and communal arts
to hunt and build, but also
knows whale, seal and sea.
You hear entire peoples
resonating behind the flames
of his chanted oral songs.

Somewhere in Manhattan
there's a werewolf poet.
He wears cologne, uses
carbon steel knives, cell
phones, text messaging and
automated ephemerides and
online travel agencies to book
the best flights to get him to
Elko, Iowa, Alaska, where
he listens respectfully to
his peers, then, when
the moon rises full, eats them.

You need not be a lycanthrope
to hear in his barbaric yawp
pure tones of lust and satiation-
and digestion of forebears.
He's popular on Wall Street and,
after visiting the White House, may
be the first werewolf poet laureate.

Bio

Greg Beatty writes everything from reviews of imaginary books to dissertations about serial killers. He recently got engaged.