Box Turtle
- Box Turtle
On a mission this day, she lifts her feeta little higher than she needs to, as if she isstepping through somebody’s flower bedand knows she has to crush a few petuniasthough she doesn’t mean to, her headfar out ahead of the damage as if todisavow it, blunt head like the tongueof a wagon, the future pulling her forwardjerkily over the uneven yard. Following,under her shell, is her burden of eggspearly as tapioca, and all four legsfor digging, lifting their wrinkly knees. [End Page 187]
Ted Kooser served two terms as poet laureate of the US. He has been the recipient of many other awards and honors, including the Stanley Kunitz Prize, the James Boatwright Prize, several Pushcart Prizes (most recently in 2012) and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry (2005). He has published thirteen volumes of poetry, five nonfiction books and three books for children. His most recent books are Splitting an Order (Copper Canyon P, 2014) and The Wheeling Year; A Poet’s Field Book (U of Nebraska P, 2014). The Bell in the Bridge (Candlewick Press), a book for children, is forthcoming in 2015. In addition, he edits “American Life in Poetry,” a column which appears weekly in more than 150 newspapers. He currently teaches poetry writing as a Presidential Professor at The University of Nebraska.
