Second Place Winner, April 2007 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Second Place Winner, April 2007

MARY LINCOLN COMMUNES WITH THE DEAD *Ellen Kombiyil* (Blueline Poetry Forum) Is that you, Willie? You sound muffled, like you’re tangled in the bedclothes. You must come closer and whisper. Father tells me I’ve already wept too much; if he catches us he’ll send me to the asylum. But tell me, how should I mourn you? I still glimpse you in the sun’s glint on the brass knocker. The oak tree creaks in wind--your boots on the porch floor, coming in from the river, home for supper. It’s not you, only the whisper of you, like the quietness of books. I envy your Father the preoccupation of work. I know you visit him. He calls them "dreams" when you sit beside him on the train clasp his hand in the theatre. I’ve kept the flowers from your coffin pressed in our Bible. Come here, closer to the light, let me see once more your sweet face. I won’t ask to hold you, I know I can’t, won’t ask you what it’s like, can’t bear the immensity. My grief, will it be eternal? You smile. I know you can’t stay. Look at you! Exactly as I remember, your face like a saint. Tomorrow I’ll light dusk’s candle again, William, William. Judge Bryan Appleyard’s comments: “This a triumph of tone and rhythm that easily survives multiple readings. The poem sustains the drama of its opening question well, shifting confidently between narrative and detail. It is a touch more perfect than “Winterset,” but came second only because it didn’t have the same poetic originality.”


About the InterBoard Poetry Competition Archive of IBPC Winners 3rd Place Winner, April 2007