for Link Wray Radio at night resounding power cord that chord progression nothing like it nowhere that distortion first contact on the air that feedback dangerous that runaway guitar taught by Hambone Charley Patton churched by Shawnee mommy circle drum unbroken that pulse informed by native land that aggression invulnerable to bullets anthem of delinquent discography of freedom before rock had rolled to take the beat behind the stroll to put on feathers You didn’t try to make it pretty because it wasn’t
Kathleen Hellen is an award-winning poet whose latest collection Meet Me at the Bottom was released in Fall 2022. Her credits include The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin, Umberto’s Night, which won the poetry prize from Washington Writers’ Publishing House, and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento.
