Carla Schwartz

CONFESSIONS OF AN ARMADILLO QUEEN

You may think I'm hard
as nails, but I am soft
under shell, and tender.

I don't need a protector,
but stun me in your headlamps,
and I'm dead.

I once was hit by
a car, and survived to tell.
One ear can't hear at all.

All that tonguing and
slurping in my left ear is
lost. Doesn't' do it.

Lick my right ear, please.
Rub my belly with butter.
Pat me with your claws.

Ooh, ooh, oh, ho, ho.
Do that with your tongue, again,
Armadillo King.

Carla Schwartz is a professional writer with a doctoral degree. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Oscillations, Equinox, Fulcrum, Enizagam, and O5401, among other journals. Her full length audio book of poems, I Could Love, as well as mp3s of live recordings of her musical work, are available at www.cdfreedom.com/carlaschwartz.