First Place Winner, March 2005 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

First Place Winner, March 2005

THAT I WAS HERE
M
(Desert Moon Review)

Of polished wood and desolated space
I have grown weary – most of the case goods
auctioned or given away. I speak to buyers
about first-rate schools, unobstructed views

of city lights over the ridge when fog
dissipates. I do not tell them my husband
died here, mine the only mind appalled
by the eyesore of a corpse on the carpet.

This house is finished with me, done gulping
from decanters of grief and guilt. It pines
for the melody of children ringing in the hall
like the glittering ping of glass wind

chimes. On the eve I am to leave, I trace palms
over newly painted walls, mourn the loss
of fortuitous stars on the ceiling. Press my body
against the bedroom floor where he was laid,

surrender impressions of Rafflesia blooms.
Flatten lips on cold kitchen tile, repeat
my name over and over, as if it could
repine beneath the eaves of my absence.

Judge Alex Lemon’s comments: “Read this poem again and again. I love ‘That I was here’ because it apprehends the presence of death by navigating sentiment with a crushing-sweetness, a focus on the resonance that emanates from the many ways we interact with the physical objects of this world. This is a wonderful poem.”