Spotlight series #92 : Kyla Houbolt

Curated by Canadian writer, editor and publisher rob mclennan, the “spotlight” series appears the first Monday of every month.

STATEMENT

Let the poem lead. Pictures in the mind find words, or not. I want to meet you at the edge of change. I once posted poems on trees in a park, anonymously. That was the best. Much as I love books, that was the best.

TWO POEMS

KI-yote

there’s a coyote in the street.
I read that coyotes are now in
every state of the union if
we can call it that. every street
has its own coyote. we didn’t
know we needed a coyote until
we got one. in some places,
people still shoot and trap them.
it makes no difference though
it is very sad. one day all the
coyote pelts will reanimate
all at once and then who can
say what will happen. well, we
can’t say what will happen
anyway, so the many packs
of reanimated coyotes will
sing and laugh and run and
scratch their fleas and breed
mightily. those who think they
are evil will gradually see the
benefits of coyotes. we will
all learn to say “ki-yote” with
the accent on the first syllable
and that final ‘e’ silent. this is
a magic spell that opens the
very doors we need opened. this is
why there is a coyote in every street.
count your blessings.

a play in the life

computers like it cold, never
mind work. dust in the bowl
does nothing for her hair.

fiddle-dee-dee, my mother
would say, blackening
the sky with her slow vibrato.

I never knew exactly
what she opposed, but
the black she chose

was gorgeous, hypnotic,
and served a meal of it
while the band burned.

I need you to know
this was not my real
mother, and my real

computer is now
dusted with gold. it’s
pollen ash. what I get for

going outside
to play.

Kyla Houbolt has been writing poems all her life, and began publishing in 2019. Her first chapbook, Dawn’s Fool, was published by Ice Floe press and is sold out; her second, Tuned, was published by Sedition Editions/CCCP Chapbooks + Subpress. Surviving Death, from Broken Spine, is her third. But Then I Thought, forthcoming from above/ground press, is her fourth. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Sublunary Review, Barren, Janus, Juke Joint, Moist, Neologism, Ghost City Review, and Stone Circle Review. Most of her online work can be found on her Linktree: @luaz_poet | Linktree Her current social media presence is on BlueSky Social (still in beta as of this writing), here: @luaz.bsky.social, and on Instagram @kyla_luaz. She currently lives and writes on the San Juan Ridge in California, USA.