Materials
The copper widow
offers a penny a thought
to fill her basket
with derivative fortune
cookie drivel of evil
~
The two-bit widow
dispenses small-time wisdom;
small-minded yokels
in small towns throughout the land
think me soothsayer gypsy
~
The très chic widow’s
custom-fitted tuxedo,
a George Sand number,
parfait with kitten-heel pumps,
and couture pop-art bow tie.
~
The watchful widow
on stake-out beyond the wake
of amplified loss
catches the constellation
Orion hunting me down
Zodiac Ripple
I was born on a full moon
a bad-ass moon
in Aries’s house
my sun sign in tight-ass Virgo’s
has a big bulgy ball of loosy-goosies
to contend with
some rules
apply
some rules don’t (as here)
fickle the application thereof
I know the rules
know which is which
a poker face doesn’t stand
a chance
you can’t
fake me out
the aggrieved
grammarian
prim-grim librarian
is off-duty tonight
my ram rises
for George Wolff
Karla Linn Merrifield, a nine-time Pushcart-Prize nominee and National Park Artist-in-Residence, has had 600+ poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has 12 books to her credit, the newest of which is Bunchberries, More Poems of Canada, a sequel to Godwit: Poems of Canada (FootHills), which received the Eiseman Award for Poetry. Forthcoming this fall is Psyche’s Scroll, a full-length poem, to be published by The Poetry Box Selects in June. She is assistant editor and poetry book reviewer for The Centrifugal Eye. Visit her blog, Vagabond Poet Redux, at http://karlalinn.blogspot.com. Google her name to learn more; Tweet @LinnMerrifiel; https://www.facebook.com/karlalinn.merrifield.
