Lauri Meyers .

I won an ARC of Animal Partners (written by Scotti Cohn and illustrated by Shennen Bersani ) from Arbordale Publishing for my entry in their Poetry Month Contest ! I was very excited to be selected out of the number of entries ( well, one entry to be exact... ).    The challenge was to write a poem about animal relationships. Researching zebras & ostriches, sea anemones & hermit crabs, and other symbiotic relationships got my juices flowing. Upon finding the crocodile and plover bird's tooth-cleaning relationship, my head filled with bits of lines and rhymes. "Wait, wait. Let me get this straight. So, you thought I would let a bird just fly into my mouth, and I wouldn't eat it? Dude. Have you had chicken wings? They are awesome! Bwa, ha, ha, ha!" ( by Yan81 via sxc.hu) My draft needed another term for jaws/ mouth/ teeth of crocodiles to complete a rhyme...which led me to the internet...which led me to a crocodile specialist and his discussion c...

"Hi, honey, how was your day?" I used to answer, "I read 137 emails about nothing, nodded abstractly in a bunch of meetings, made a killer multi-colored spreadsheet, ate chicken fingers at my desk then tried to airspray the breading out of my keyboard,  ..." Fast forward to today.   "Hey, babe, whad'ya do today?"  I answer, "I studied the sounds downy woodpeckers make, which includes a "whinnying call" if you were wondering.   I practiced speaking squirrel: "kuk, kuk, chitter, tail flash!"  I laugh hysterically then remember my husband doesn't speak squirrel fluently and didn't get the punch line.   "I crawled to the kitchen to make lunch, because I couldn't find the right words to describe an anteater hunting ants.  Then, I hocked a few loogies into the sink to try to create the sound a giant would make when he stepped on a pointed-hat-wearing elf.   Oh, frookberries!" I was too far ...