Around these Florida parts, mistah,
she’s known to give a dude an earful
of her spider jive; slicking every sticky
detail web-wide in complex polygonal
thoughts, sistah’s strands in the sawgrass
hood; not one subtropical fact of arachnid
life omitted; her silent design
and designs on you‚ summoned, the wild
Everglades orb weaver female spins
a spell Calusa and Seminole chicks could dig
as I do; no choice, bro, you’ll juke
to truly primal lines she makes
out of hip, steamy air; she always gests
her jungle groove. You too get caught.
***
A seven-time Pushcart-Prize nominee and National Park Artist-in-Residence, Karla Linn Merrifield has had nearly 300 poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has eight books to her credit, the newest of which are The Ice Decides: Poems of Antarctica (Finishing Line Press) and Liberty’s Vigil, The Occupy Anthology: 99 Poets among the 99%, which she co-edited. Forthcoming from Salmon Poetry is Athabaskan Fractal and Other Poems of the Far North. Her Godwit: Poems of Canada. (FootHills) received the 2009 Eiseman Award for Poetry and she recently received the Dr. Sherwin Howard Award for the best poetry published in Weber – The Contemporary West in 2012. She is assistant editor and poetry book reviewer for The Centrifugal Eye. Visit her blog, Vagabond Poet.
Sliver of Stone Magazine 
Leave a Reply