I squeeze the tick between my fingers—
blood stains the soft belly on my dog’s tender
skin. It spreads across her open sore
like a scarlet flower blooming beneath
the sun. Below my nails, deep down
to the quick, a tiny predator lies pulled
to bits. Inhumane in my removal, the savage
that I am, remnants of the unwanted trespasser
linger like an echo from far beyond, a distant
reminder, all creatures, great and small
are always feeding off others for the good
or bad, for the need or want, nothing will
ever be truer than this. And if I stop to listen,
take a silent pause of gratitude in the midst
of my own survival, I can almost hear the echo
after the trauma of one over another, feel
the wind exhale in sympathy—a whispering
rejoice in the celebration of victory or mourning
of a loss, the universe humming its
ongoing chant as my dog licks my finger,
and I apply salve on her wound.
“The Killing” first appeared in The Grey Sparrow.
Carol Lynn Stevenson Grellas is a graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts, MFA in Writing program. She is a thirteen-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a seven-time Best of the Net nominee. In 2012, she won the Red Ochre Chapbook Contest with her manuscript, Before I Go to Sleep. In 2018, her book, In the Making of Goodbyes was nominated for The CLMP Firecracker Award in Poetry, and her poem “A Mall in California” took 2nd place for the Jack Kerouac Poetry Prize. In 2019, her chapbook An Ode to Hope in the Midst of Pandemonium was a finalist in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. In 2021, Her latest collection, Alice in Ruby Slippers, was short-listed for the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize and awarded an honorable mention in the Poetry category.
Her work can be found online and in print and has been featured in Mezzo Cammin, Verse Daily, and many more. She is a former editor-in-chief for the Tule Review and The Orchards Poetry Journal. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Women’s Wisdom Art, an organization in Sacramento that supports women’s wellness through creativity in all forms. Her latest collections of poetry, Handful of Stallions at Twilight (Finishing Line Press) and A Shared and Sacred Space (Kelsay Books), were released in 2024.
Sparks of Calliope 