Nicholas Holt

The Survivalist’s Field Guide to Seducing the Mothman

We talk a lot, you & I, but the conversation
always comes back to cryptocurrency.

Remember what you thought? You thought
cryptids. Bigfoot pulling a woodland tenner

out of his ripped jeans and paying an owl
for some beet chips. I told you it’s more

like a factory without the steam whistle.
A line of computers humming chiptunes,

their eyes blinking red. I read that’s how
they smile. You smile when you dream,

but I don’t. I’m always at dream work.
The minimum wage is pillow drool

to keep plowboys in poverty. I spend
the pittance on new lipstick to wear

in my nightmares. I don’t hope it keeps
my teeth in my gums, just that they’ll be

a little prettier when they rattle
into the bathroom sink. I hope

when I boot-up and move into a studio
oak tree, you’re right — that it was

cryptids — the Loch Ness lets me slide
down his neck & into the lake, and mothman

is the village idiot, and the village boyfriend,
and my idiot boyfriend. He drops by

holding stacks of two-by-fours under
his wings and offers to renovate

my countertops. I stare at the lipstick
trailing up his neck and up to his big

red eyes. I pet the chipmunk in the hamster
wheel that powers my computer and check

my currency. I unbutton my shirt
and say what will it cost me?

________________________________________________________________________________________

Nicholas Holt is a fourth year student studying Creative Writing at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. He is finishing his first manuscript to earn an Honors status within his major. His work has appeared in The Kudzu Review.