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"Montana Inventory"

Richard Brautigan

At 85 miles an hour an insect splattered
like saffron on the windshield
and a white cloud in blue sky above the
     speed-curried bug

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Richard Gary Brautigan (1935-1984) was an American writer popular during the late 1960s and early 1970s and is often noted for using humor and emotion to propel a unique vision of hope and imagination throughout his body of work which includes ten books of poetry, eleven novels, one collection of short stories, and miscellaneous non-fiction pieces. His easy-to-read yet idiosyncratic prose style is seen as the best characterization of the cultural electricity prevalent in San Francisco, Brautigan's home, during the ebbing of the Beat Generation and the emergence of the counterculture movement. Brautigan's best-known works include his novel, Trout Fishing in America (1967), his collection of poetry, The Pill versus The Springhill Mine Disaster (1968), and his collection of stories, Revenge of the Lawn (1971). Brautigan died by suicide in late September 1984.

"Montana Inventory" was published in Richard Brautigan's collection Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork.

>  Thanks to Mark Hufstetler for recommending this poem.  <

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