​The Weight of the Carapace, by Lindsey Royce

Weight of the Carapace, by Sarah Petruziello (USA) 2018. Click image for artist site.

​The Weight of the Carapace 

Heavy, and the colour of lead, my body  
is spine-fused to an amber carapace.  
I am startled by threats in murk,  

and my eyes, bulging like a turtle’s,  
hear the rustling brush  
like curses on wind, words  

snagged in Gambel Oak. I thrash 
like panicked wings. I crawl close  
low-slung things, dirt and fern and ivy. 

Behind bound tree roots, I am naked beneath 
the weight of my shell, and I wear it, not my 
Achille’s shield, but host’s gold charger, 

aware of the looming fracture to each scute.  
With a free hand, I serve fruits: mangos,  
grapes, pomegranates, and pears— 

All are fed, living and dead, as my prayer— 
holy, holy—rises from my mouth’s 
censer— pieces me away, unafraid.

Lindsey Royce

Lindsey Royce’s poems have appeared in periodicals and anthologies, including the Aeolian Harp #10 (forthcoming), #8, #7, and #5 anthologies; Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts (periodicals and anthologies); The Hampton-Sydney Review; The New York Quarterly, Poet Lore, and The Washington Square Review. Her poems have been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. Royce’s first poetry collection, Bare Hands, was published by Turning Point in September of 2016, and her second collection, Play Me a Revolution, was published by Press 53 in September of 2019 and placed for an IPPY Award. Her third collection, The Book of John, was published in April 2023 and was a finalist in The Feathered Quill Book Awards. Also, The Book of John received an excellent Kirkus review. She lives in beautiful northwest Colorado.