Judge Pascale Petit’s comments: “Second place goes to another fine ‘bird’ poem, also tautly constructed and packed with organic, chiming imagery. A blue jay’s legs embracing the sky metamorphose into blue flames around a teaspoon, then into a room with blue-feather quilted walls. The images vibrate against each other; the language is trance-like, allowing the blue images to burgeon and transmute in semi-abstract motion. Synaesthetic phrases such as ‘their ghosts / thicken and swell in your throat,’ ‘close your humming eyes’ and ‘it’s close and warm, like morning singing’ have a hypnotic effect, lulling the reader over the transitions and merging the triple image of blue jay/ blue flame/ quilt walls seamlessly.”