If I had
a diamondback terrapin
I would name her
Spartina
after the brack-water grass
where her kind nest
If I had
a green tree frog
I would name her
Georgia
after her home state
where she is state
amphibian
If I were a skink
I would call myself
Slinky
for the way I whip
through leaf and needle duff
But I could no more play
domesticator of native wildnesses
than I can be the stunningly nimble
reptile Plestiodon inexpectatus.
In memoriam Beau Cutts
Poem by Karla Linn Merrifield
She has 14 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. In early 2021, her Half a World of Kisses will be published by Truth Serum Press (Australia) under its new Lindauer Poets imprint. She is currently at work on a poetry collection, My Body the Guitar, inspired by famous guitarists and their guitars; the book is slated to be published in December 2021 by Before Your Quiet Eyes Publications Holograph Series (Rochester, NY). Tweet @LinnMerrifiel; https://www.facebook.com/karlalinn.merrifield.