“Appalachians Run Amok” by Adrian Blevins (poetry, ’02)

An excerpt from “Appalachians Run Amok” by Adrian Blevins (poetry, ’02), from her book, Appalachians Run Amok, and featured at Two Sylvias Press:

 

 

Appalachians Run Amok

Another thing the Appalachians don’t like to talk about
is the creepy extent to which they adore the way they talk
alone in the shower & just walking around in their bandanas
versus how much they obviously meanwhile sort of also
secretly hate the high notes of their own hill-kitschy prattle,
especially if we’re talking halfway psychedelic Appalachians
from mid-century America born in 1937 in Southwest Virginia,
& as it happens we are talking halfway psychedelic Appalachians
from mid-century America born in 1937 in Southwest Virginia
as we are talking as usual about my father who worked so hard
to assimilate & become a mutt when he traded in his wind-up radio
for certain unnamed urbanites & fake movie stars in the theatres
& bars of Richmond, Virginia, where Daddy went to college […continue reading here]