Winter Solstice Barrier Island

​

On the day of broken shells
too numerous to count,
odorous moribund multitudes
from the Gulf roll up on shore,
red tide’s red snappers
on another day of the dead.
How many does that make?
The –ologists can’t keep up.
Empty eye socket upon socket,
ohs and ohs and ohs of mouths
in suffocation exclamation—messages
of rot impossible to ignore.
I am recruited as scribe by
the ichthyoghosts of Cayo Costa.

​

Karla Linn Merrifield has 16 books to her credit. Her newest My Body the Guitar has been recently nominated for the 2022 National Book Award.

​

​

​