Second Place Winner, November 2004 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Second Place Winner, November 2004

MY ONLY SWERVING
T. Obatala
(About Poetry Forum)

The bones
of my body
if broken
a certain way
can generate
light on their
own.

That is why
i can say
the thing
that i was,
the thing
that now
waits,
has turned
into a funeral
lamp.

I think hard
for all of me.

Light jumps in
to fill the spaces
where my body’s been.

Judge Anthony Robinson’s comments: “‘My Only Swerving’ is mysterious, compact, and it works on the page really well. It’s not quite inscrutable, but it almost successfully resists the intelligence on the first few reads and is a better poem for it.”