by Willie Carver
Sleeping with the Mothman in a Motel 6 in Parkersburg, West Virginia
It took two key swipes to get in
the door to the Motel 6 the first time
I slept with Mothman I stumbled
tipsy and giggly past the windows nailed
shut and door dented by the drunk
and angry fists of now long sober
or long dead men and he was already
in the room fiddling with the remote
red eyes floating like burning giant
cigars and I didn’t have to speak
a word because he already knew
I was drinking to forget the things
he lifted out his wings and the air
swam with starless electric dreams
I relaxed into him and red wine eye glow
purred revelations across the dusty drywall
ceiling and puckering of cigarette
burned comforters until the future
started melting down the interstate
running east to west to east to west
and the cars and the people in them
waited and hoped for their exits.
Willie Carver Jr. is a minoritized youth advocate, Kentucky Teacher of the Year, and the author of Gay Poems for Red States, a Stonewall, American Library Association, Read Appalachia, Whippoorwill, and Book Riot-award winning collection. His fragmented novel, Tore All to Pieces, will be published in Spring 2026 by the University Press of Kentucky. Willie writes poetry and fiction from Appalachia and believes everyone deserves to feel that they matter.