Photo by Phinehas Adams on Unsplash
Only JoJo the Poet could imagine him
a cowboy, one fresh-faced, fresh out
of Last Chance, Idaho, in stiff new John B. Stetson hat,
stiff Levi’s, stiff Tony Lama boots, downshifting
his new Ford Bronco, spitting dust across
the open ranchland of her heart,
where his façade was peeled away, gingerly,
to swathe blisters, swab skeeter welts, rub
sore butt muscles while reciting Shelley
to one nude buckaroo ready to husband her body.
for Nicolas Eckerson
Karla Linn Merrifield has had 800+ 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 new 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 to be published by Before Your Quiet Eyes Holograph Series (Rochester, NY) in late 2021. She is a frequent contributor to The Songs of Eretz Poetry Review.