Katie Mertz
Jumanji The Board Game
a jaguar will lick her one claw
before she rips a stripe in you
remind you yeah we are made
of actual warm stuff and yet
of course we are so accidentally
alive and of course this cherry ice pop
tasted better when we were dying
young but what of it a bassinet
locked to a bike rack hello baby
set her down see if she is happier
in this poem not looking at the sky
Katie Mertz is Associate Editor for Whiskey Island and Assistant Poetry Editor for Phantom Limb Press. When she is not doing those things, she is co-curating the BIG BIG MESS Reading Series and making noise at the Cleveland State University Poetry Center. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ilk, Toad le Journal, Birdfeast & others. Her poem “This is How to Be Good” was nominated for a 2014 Pushcart Prize. She lives in Akron, Ohio.
