Thanks to everyone who sent us a poem (or 5). Some great stuff. It was a tough choice, blah blah blah, here are the winners! (It seriously was a tough choice.)
WINNER - Time Capsule by Michael Shorb
TIME
CAPSULE
It had something to do
with global warming
anyway sand-
storms covered
badlands of northern
California somehow leaving
one of my poems as
a marker in time
excavated years later
it provided a contrast
to the official national
capsule back east.
Fortunately the buried poem
was quite an epic
anthropologists hefted out
so many crates of evidence
they resembled a line of
army ants.
We fared much better
than empires represented
by shards of pottery alone.
The crates ran from A
for Apple iPod to
Z for Zoroastrian creation myths.
It was all there:
why we lived
what we meant
that sort of thing.
---
RUNNER UP - Mommy Syphilis by Sarah Haas
Mommy Syphilis
A morning wet
Still dreaming
Salty and green
A sailor’s promise
Years gone by
Still linger
In the sea foam
Of her eyes
Tides come in
And wait
To wash me out again
In the holding time
Between twenty-five years
Gone by
And another morning rise
The spirit
She once took seriously
Winks at me
Before she dissolves
Into the walls
Leaving the pitiful woman
Who once
Knew how to love
Magnificently
Cursing her name
Mommy hangs
between
The false veins and arteries
Of I.V.s
Like a piece of moon bone
Fallen from the sky
Grated to dust
By the window screen
Laid wide
Across the musty arms
Of a wooden chair
Rocking back and forth
Singing
I got a rose bud
Stuck in the back of my throat
Come round
Close ya hear
And pull it out
My fingers stumble
Through the room
Catch cobwebs
And broken tresses
Of her hair
Collide
With jaundice
Dyed
Skin
Draped across
The iron cage
Where a heart still
Flutters
With feathered rage
Hoping
The seaman
Will come back
To sing
The song
She drown in
The inside corridors of my ear
Fall close enough
To feel
Her November air
She smiles
Thinking I am death
No, not today my dear
She coughs and hacks
And tries to laugh
As nails drive
Into my wrists
Pinned
I cannot catch
The scarlet phlegm
That blossoms
A bouquet
In the nape of her neck
You always were
A worthless girl
She says
I adjust the quilted flee-mat
Across her lap
“Glad to hear
You still have breath”
I make sure there is water near
And wipe down her chest
See you tomorrow
I’ll come back
And braid your hair
She tells me
The sailor will return
And take her forever
Away from here
The door
Closes her inside
Her haunted shrine
And all the neighbors can hear
Her shout about
The careless woman ‘
I turned out
I close my eyes
And take a breath
Was it the spirit that lied?
Did mom hear somewhere
That she was born
For him
I thought she was mine
I guess
We both lost out
But I will never leave
I will never set her free
Let her go
So I come back
And watch her decompose
Years ago
I cried
But now I just wait
Until darkness bends
Around
Each corner
Of her tomb
And listen to her shout
As if she were underground
Waiting outside her bedroom
I huddle by the door
For her to shrink away
Maybe she will disappear
But I wait
To hear
The tiny word –
Stay
Because I know
Secretly
She says it to me
When she thinks
I have finally
Left her there---
HONORABLE MENTION - Freckles by Yuko Sawatani
FRECKLES
My new bikini will take me to a beach.
The beach, brings me instant satisfaction
and permanent torture.
Here, I am home and you follow me in disguise.
Slowly and silently, you start to sizzle my skin.
Like a hot stone when you put water on it.
My back, my legs, my face…..
I know it's not enough. I know you won't let me go.
Now you show yourself.
You are an enemy of my life
of all girls.
I have spilled inks on my face and they are spread out.
Wipe, erase, and bleach - nothing works.
There is no way
but to live with you forever.
---
Thanks again for all the submissions, and to guest judges Brian Lee and L____L___. Please check back next month for more contests! Poetry, prose, and more...
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