Jessica Jones
Jessica Jones (MA, University Montana) is on full-time faculty at Kent State University where she teaches creative writing, Native American Literature, and place-based composition. She comes from a long line of makers and musicians in Northern Appalachia. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies; her book Bitterroot, about living and teaching in on the Flathead Indian Reservation, can be found at Finishing Line Press.
KPAX News, Montana
2015
Six o’clock press was covered
by plain people on Channel 8:
one pregnant, the other homely,
“Temps down to 40 below
a winter storm howling…”
Nothing much else on their list—
frozen pipes in Helena,
so the capitol cafeteria was closed;
A school choir up in Lakeside
chastised for singing at a church.
The decades-long water dispute
over Salish Kootenai Dam;
Safe driver awards for Two Eagle High;
A map of the blizzard,
Alberta to Wyoming.
I didn’t miss the broadcasts back east.
The sirens and commercials.
The strangers and fast speech.
Here, mountains determined everything
and human stories sounded small.
I turned down the volume, cradled the cat,
both of us listening to the wind—
louder than anything
a talking box could say
to such wildness.
