First Place Winner, January 2003 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

First Place Winner, January 2003

MISSING THE CUT ON NOAH'S ARK
William Neumire
(Melic Review RoundTable)

Bristled knees sloughing
Through three-foot waves, broken
liquor flasks, bronze coins, bone
Dice, keepsakes of a papery world
Move on the brine surface.

What can you lie
About with the water already
Breeching your waist?

But there are these moments-- before
The wrath is full, while the boat
Is still swelling in the distance:
To watch the species budge
Their way to the hull and squeeze
Themselves between the bowed boards--
Knowing that you are at least
Better than this desperation.
To be proud of your godlessness
And gather the entire scarred earth
In one more good breath.

There are the small
Decisions: to move through the downward
Current or stand a while as the only
Motionless thing.
To find a woman, already praying,
And remember what passion you can.

Or to pray yourself, legs akimbo
In the ocean mood, salty tides
Lapping in the throat, muffling tardy words.
To recall the last few sins
And if not to repent then to take
A new pride in their purchased
Taste.
To open your eyes
To the water, or to close them.

Comments from the judges (River Styx editors): “We unanimously selected this for 1st place. Overall, we thought this was a great idea for a poem and we appreciated its psychological depth and philosophical charge. The language is chosen well and appropriate for the poem's images.”