To Cetus I pray:
Grant me the gene memories
of Earth’s singing whales.
The Pleiades yield
magical capacity
to ancient wishes.
Orion eases
modern insecurities;
I grow more primal.
Ursa roars wildest
grammars of animacy
that I may bear grief.
From Virgo’s house
comes the polemical fist
of stars, of stardust.
Karla Linn Merrifield has had 1000+ poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies, with 14 books to her credit. Following her 2018 Psyche’s Scroll (Poetry Box Select) is the newly released full-length book Athabaskan Fractal: Poems of the Far North from Cirque Press. Her newest poetry collection, My Body the Guitar, inspired by famous guitarists and their guitars, was published in January 2022 by Before Your Quiet Eyes Publications Holograph Series (Rochester, NY). Website: www.karlalinnmerrifield.org. Blog at karlalinnmerrifeld.wordpress.com. Tweet @LinnMerrifiel