“Prologue” by Jude Whelchel (fiction, ’13)

A prose poem by Jude Whelchel (fiction, ’13) is a finalist for the R.T. Smith Prize for Narrative Poetry and appears in Cold Mountain Review:

They tread me in waist-high, protective boots, bowing to Linnaeus, naming things binomially, wrapping wire tags etched in carbon, cutting plant flesh with razorblades. Magnolia virginiana. Gordonia lasianthus. Taxodium ascendens. Fingering cypress knees, their eyes follow my timberlines sun high, tongues tasting, noses cocked, sniffing, saliva on the chin. Pulling [. . . continue reading here.]