A Tortoise’s Touch

Would you touch my leathery face

if I extended my wrinkled neck

ever so slowly beyond my hard shell

crawling awkwardly on splayed feet

seeking safety and solitude?



I would retract instantly if you

poked me, I will never win a race

carrying my own blind where I

hide until it’s clear,

summer or winter.



I’m not looking for you but

I appreciate tender greens,

delicacies gingerly hand-held,

a soothing rain— your hands

on my dry face.







Emily Strauss has an M.A. in English, but is self-taught in poetry. More than 80 of her poems appear in public online and in anthologies. The natural world is her framework; she focuses on the tension between nature and humanity, using concrete images to illuminate the loss of meaning between them.