Third Place Winner, April 2009 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Third Place Winner, April 2009

A RUSH OF CLOUDS *Laurel K. Dodge* (The Writer’s Block) Night after night, you pry your dog off your wife then try to mold your body to hers, never wondering what it must be like to be that small, to be a whole, contained world, that, despite your best attempts to gain entry remains impenetrable. In the secretive dark, plums fall. You, who refuse to eat bruised fruit. You, who cover your ears during thunder storms. In his dreams, your dog trembles and growls. Each morning, she looks into your face as if she was searching the sky for stars. Each morning, you survey your perfect little garden as if you were god. Last night, you paused to look out the window and saw the moon, obscured then revealed by a rush of clouds. Your dog digs a hole under the fence and doesn’t come back when called. You pick up what you view as ruined fruit. Your wife will eat the windfall. Comments by judge Duncan Mercredi: “I’m not sure why I chose this piece, but it touched me. It left me with wanting to know more. What is the story between these (star-crossed lovers, perhaps) individuals that one would want the other to experience the windfall of bruised fruit? So many questions and the piece leaves one’s imaginations to seek the truth between the lines. One question, was the dog jealous?”