First Place Winner, June 2009 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

First Place Winner, June 2009

YOU THINK YOU’VE SEEN EVERYTHING *Justin Hyde* (Salty Dreams) silver-dollar eyed guy in the corner of the flying-j talking gibberish loudly to himself. that’s nothing we’ve all seen it. but still after pissing you ask the waitress if he’s all right. he’s a regular, she says. a Vietnam vet. that makes sense. you go back to reading a little sartre. he jumps out of his booth. starts doing the twist. 6’3 250 pound bear of a man grinding it out like a motherfucker. smiling from one end of the room to the other belting out chubby checker so loud it’s vibrating your ribcage from seven booths over. he comes toward your booth. motions for you to get up and dance. it’s not fear and it’s not pity. you don’t exactly know what the hell is going on. but you do it. Comments by judge Duncan Mercredi: “We’ve all been there, as an observer or the observed, minding our own, speaking to ghosts or the gods in our own private place. Then someone intrudes, just to peek inside your mind, seeking the message you have hidden within you. Time to time, they’ll let you in, but there’s always a price to pay, isn’t there? Excellent piece of writing with a surprise ‘twist’ at the end.”