Camouflage is the art of hiding in plain sight. Of standing perfectly still, keeping silent, blending in, getting lost in the background, resembling something else. It’s an art practiced to conceal feelings, disguise intent, blind danger. Sometimes it’s a necessary skill for survival. Even elephants know how to disappear.
photograph by Cheryl Merrill
Cheryl Merrill’s essays have been published in Fourth Genre, Pilgrimage, Brevity, Seems, South Loop Review, Ghoti, Alaska Quarterly Review, Adventum and Isotope. “Singing Like Yma Sumac” was selected for the Best of Brevity 2005 and Creative Nonfiction #27. It was also included in the anthology Short Takes: Model Essays for Composition, 10th Edition. Another essay, “Trunk,” was chosen for Special Mention in Pushcart 2008.
She is currently working on a book about elephants: Larger than Life: Living in the Shadows of Elephants.
