Unborn hole empties church
railroad ties in a forest
crawdads tadpoles nymphs sold out
who dreamed up Jupiter’s moonscapes
Kelp and kale prom dresses
the hunter who bags his pal
no mention of French parfum
stenches of ghetto gutters
F-only alphabet soup de jour
minesweeper memories of fiscal statistics
but last place in Ulsysses
found living moodquick-change artist
born whole
my brain on my mind
Karla Linn Merrifield, a nine-time Pushcart-Prize nominee and National Park Artist-in-Residence, has had 1000+ poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has 15 books to her credit. Following her 2018 Psyche’s Scroll (Poetry Box Select) is the 2019 full-length book Athabaskan Fractal: Poems of the Far North from Cirque Press. Her newest poetry collection is My Body the Guitar, inspired by famous guitarists and their guitars, and published in January 2022 by Before Your Quiet Eyes Publications Holograph Series. Her Godwit: Poems of Canada (FootHills Publishing) received the Eiseman Award for Poetry. She is a frequent contributor to The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, and assistant editor and poetry book reviewer emerita for The Centrifugal Eye. Web site: www.karlalinnmerrifield.org/; blog at karlalinnmerrifeld.wordpress.com/; Tweet @LinnMerrifiel; Instagram: karlalinnm; Facebook: www.facebook.com/karlalinn.merrifield.