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

  

by Karla Linn Merrifield

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.

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