| InterBoard Poetry Competition | |
INCARNATE SORROWS
Gabriel Siegel
(Melic Review Roundtable)
Within the harbor’s stilting light, there are two girls
within sight of The Veritas Maid, gone a day and full
within her quarter hold, of bluefin. There are two girls
above the Hampshire crags, the froth and fray below.
Above a swath of Pluto’s retching, there are two girls
above the violent hissing roar, waves defining waters.
Against horizon shorn, are flowers. There are two girls
against hard-light disguised as gyre gulls, in shadow.
Against a gale raveling cold unfurl, there are two girls
beyond fires’ breach, mutely standing: Leucosia, Ligia.
Beyond seaway passage, in reach of lightning’s fold
beyond claim, there are two girls. There are two
HEAVEN FORGIVE
Jennifer Anne Beebe
(Melic Review Roundtable)
My son tells me he sees
heaven in his heart and Christ knows
I want to tell him it's true, he's right,
but I'm tired, weary, and I think
forgive me, I think just for one moment
I think, sure kid here's a quarter,
hop a bus see how far heaven
takes you, and I picture him,
my four-year-old climbing those big
rubber bus stairs with the grooves
so he won't slip if it's wet,
see him reach, slide his coin through the slot
as the driver, his mouth rounding o's, says
sit down while raising his eyes, whites rolling
up the rearview mirror as my boy walks
the aisle, passengers' mouths opening closing,
landed fish, hooks and eyes, the old
women, orange lipstick outside the lines
scaring him as he passes with no breadcrumbs
so steady, my son, so steady
as he finds a seat, clambers up,
sits so straight and tall and
alone except for his heaven,
his blessing before his mama breaks
his heart, shoos heaven like she does
a monster from his room, shoos heaven
out the window to some other child
safe and warm in the house he was born in,
his parents' steady
breathing from the bedroom,
breadcrumbs in the night,
heaven in his heart.
About the InterBoard Poetry Competition
Archive of IBPC Winners
Entries representing the About Poetry Forum, January 2002
