Second Place
Kathy Hawkins-----
Landing
Authorities
found Friday the body of a passenger on a sightseeing helicopter who
plunged to his death at Grand Canyon National Park in an apparent
suicide. - Associated Press
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As newlyweds, we walked the edge
of the abyss, gaping openmouthed
at naked granite shards; the gash
cracked wide to the core. You trembled
breathless against me; my hands clasped
the circle of your small waist, wanting
to contain you. Together we threw
pebbles down the pit hole, listening
for the crack of landing. Centuries held us
steady on the fault line.
Later, you slipped from my grip,
crawled inside a crevice. I tried to follow,
but couldn’t fit. A barrette, a ring,
a pair of jeans - I gathered the remains,
and ground them to powder.
This anniversary, I’m airborne
above the canyon walls, scaling jaws
of hollowed ground, mounting
the face, gouged and graven.
I drop from the roaring
plane into bedrock, limestone, soil.
I am stone, blood and bone.
I will shatter, wind-blown upon the rift;
erase the ages, come to rest.
From the bottom, I will fill this earth.
Make it whole again.
| Kathryn
Hawkins
lives in Pittsburgh, PA, where she is studying in the Chatham
College MFA program. Her work has been published in Stirring,
Half Drunk Muse,
and the New Yinzer anthology, Dirt.
email:
K.Hawkins
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Third Place
Steve
Klepetar
Werewolf
Drinks Alone
----------After
Li Bai
Blood from cupped paws, under falling
leaves; I drink alone, for no friend is near.
Actually, I’ve eaten all my friends
and much prefer the solitude. No need
to beckon the bright moon, who always
beckons me, for I am her shadow, I spring
to life at her command. You think the moon
never takes a sip of blood? Oh, look
at her lips, smeared from deep draughts,
her kohl-dark eyes sensual and wide, ears
delicate and always open to sailors’ screams.
May I dance in her shining arms and feel
her fingers on my tingling, moon-drunk fur
until the final wave of darkness pulls me down.
| Steve Klepetar
teaches literature and writing at Saint Cloud State University in
Minnesota. His work has appeared in Poems Niederngasse, in a
project with poet Joseph Lisowski, and in many other places. email: S.Klepetar
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