POETRY

Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene Peregrinus Temporalis)

By Deborah Miranda     Reprinted with permission from University of Georgia Press
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They meet on the mountain, carrying orange, yellow
and black calligraphy through October rain.
 
Male and female, elastic necks stretch out in prehistoric
passion beneath silvery leaves: concave lower plate
 
presses against carapace. Puzzle pieces, twin halves,
they’ve roamed the underbrush looking for this yes.
 
Her tail sweeps to one side, his rear plastron lowers,
back legs link. Lust holds them steady; claws rake top shell,
 
carve wet red clay. Topaz eyes dazzle like tiny suns.
Their hunger persists on convoluted ridges of oak and pine,
 
cedar and alder; endures separate solitudes under thick
wineberry and blackberry vines; navigates granite slabs,
 
a creek wandering through whole galaxies. Beaks bite,
shells crack—this is no tame lovemaking—the male rises
 
on the stiff back edge of his shell, thrusts in slow motion.
It's late in the season, but female turtle, old soul, survivor,
 
makes of herself a living time portal; stores her mate’s seed
in her body’s secret compartment. All winter, she’ll hibernate
 
inside a hollowed-out space in the heart of the forest. By spring,
her mate may be far away, mounting some other fiery sister.
 
It won't matter. When she is ready, this small mountain
of a mother will unfreeze time, let egg and sperm rendezvous.
 
In the saddle between Big House and Little House Mountains
she'll dig her nest on a humid summer night. In due time,
 
small slow pilgrims will plow their way out from the earth—​
each hatchling choosing a direction, each soul setting off to scale
 
what can’t be scaled. Each shell bearing black brushstrokes:
a scripture of blessings for traveling through time.

EASTERN BOX TURTLE

Terrapene carolina (Linnaeus, 1768)

Habitat and Range: Moist deciduous forests, especially in bogs, wetlands, and stream margins in eastern North America west to Missouri.

Description and Notes: The box turtle is a familiar sight in the Southern Appalachians, often spotted crossing roads after spring and summer rains. It hides out during winter, burrowed into soft, damp ground. This terrapin has a hinged plastron, which is to say its brownish yellow-orange shell has a door-like part it can close, retracting its body into a “box.” For all the protection a shell provides, there are some drawbacks: During mating, a shell is cumbersome, and a male has a good chance of ending up flipped on his back. If he cannot right himself, he can die like this. The male can be distinguished from the female (even when not in such a compromised position) by his bright reddish eyes and concave lower shell plate. The box turtle often lives twenty-five to fifty years and can live even longer. In the last few decades, the box turtle has become rarer, probably due to land development and its being collected to sell as a pet.


A Literary Field Guide to
​Southern Appalachia

University of Georgia Press