Evening comes with chattering
squirrels, a cardinal turned black at dusk,
his voice a sharp crimson note
in my dim forest. Foraging armadillos
are abroad in leaf litter. Snuffling.
High-pitched tree frogs pipe in Florida’s nightfall.
Sleepless creatures like me shudder
the palm fronds fanning
subtropical thoughts of how
owls shall weave the darkness.
Poem by Karla Linn Merrifield.
Karla Linn Merrifield, a nine-time Pushcart-Prize nominee and National Park Artist-in-Residence, has had 900+ poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. 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. 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). 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. She is a member of Just Poets (Rochester, NY), the Florida State Poetry Society, the New Mexico Poetry Society, and The Author’s Guild. Web site: https://klmerrifield.wpengine.com/; Tweet @LinnMerrifiel; https://www.facebook.com/karlalinn.merrifield.