In lush language and startling metaphor, Kalina Smith tells family truths, women’s truths, and lovers’ truths. At turns tender and fierce, the poems in Scorpio Season will linger with the reader long after the book is closed. —Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, 2017–18 Oklahoma Poet Laureate, author, What I Learned at the War Kalina Smith’s debut poetry chapbook, Scorpio Season, is immersed in nature with all the senses and with every sensation: the music of water and birds and country songs, flower colors, weather in cold and hot seasons, in a culture of Christians, whiskey, kindness, and meanness. The zodiac, the calendar, and the hours measure life and death as the future unfolds, crashing, crumpling, wading, until the scorpion becomes dozens of butterflies, like the best poetry. —Mary Meriam, author, Pools of June