Second Place Winner, March 2004 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Second Place Winner, March 2004

EMPTY BOWL
Charlene Dewbre
(Desert Moon Review)

My mother would stand at the table,
a pillar in cheap cotton
and vanilla extract. She showed me
how to mix ingredients just so.
I coveted her copper mixing bowl.

I used to dream of the small hands
I might guide someday. Patiently
teach them the craft of baking.
Crack an egg or two,
how to mix ingredients just so.

I’m accomplished now, best cook
in the family, they say,
but my sister’s daughter
decorates our Christmas cookies
while I wash and put away
the empty copper bowl.

Judge John Poch’s comment: “The second place poem this month also ‘seems’ to lack ambition, and ‘seems’ to be plain, but it captures a moment in plain language that makes the moment speak. Look at the line breaks here and learn. It could be a little more descriptive, I think, but the understated ‘Crack an egg or two’ reveals so much. Doesn’t it? This poem forms and crafts and then bakes the poem to a crisp but warm edge, quietly. Anger and compassion wrestle with each other long after we have finished the poem.”