Second Place Winner, March 2005 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Second Place Winner, March 2005

HANDLESS WOMAN
Lynn Sweeting
(MoonTown Cafe)

When I had no hands
I carried our son
between my teeth,
bathed him with my elbows,
dressed him
by sheer will and
brushed his hair
with my twisted toes.

When the forest was blackest
I saw souls
suddenly among the trees saying,
go this way,
go this way.

Even in dark moons
I had milky breasts to feed him and
when it rained
I carved a cave in the rock with my tongue

and we hunkered down.

Judge Alex Lemon’s comments: “Of course this poem’s first line near-sings Levertov’s ‘Intrusion,’ but it keeps me sleepless with its haunting-beauty. Here is a white-out of bleakness, one that amplifies each image, each word in this poem, as each step in a blizzard is compounded exponentially by the fierce cold.”