| InterBoard Poetry Competition | |
4 SEVENLINGS
Yolanda Calderon-Horn
(The Versifier)
Sevenling 1
His song persuades applesauce
to scream, a boiling broth to quiet,
and urges foes to befriend.
I am a recorder for his librettos,
a cathedral for his plea,
and a married woman, for heaven’s sake.
I hope he likes red beans and rice.
Sevenling 2
I carry an umbrella, a lone key
and a mug crowned by coffee fog
as I dash through a deluge.
My entry is quick like crash-sex.
The radio, defroster and wipers coo.
And steam Londons over my eyes.
My message needs a cell phone.
Sevenling 3
You go away on big business,
grizzly bear sleep,
and your senate in the tool shed.
But you don’t come away
to my occupation, loopy dreams
or under my dress.
In what route did we lose the plums?
Sevenling 4
We went mad over lemon rice,
gully cricket and Nandi Hill --
were roused to form our ethnicity,
drink from the other as if we were water.
The air rumbled with masala,
rosin, and nightly monsoons.
Bangalorian Nag Champa is now a snake of ashes.
Judge Ravi Shankar’s comments: “‘4 Sevenlings’ was the most original poem in the batch, disjunctive in the best sense of the word.The tone that’s immediately established (‘a married woman for heaven’s sake’) is wry and sardonic. Much of the rest of this poem is surprising, like the absurd litany of objects that takes on an enigmatic, dreamlike presence:
I carry an umbrella, a lone key
This poem leaps unexpectedly from image to image, ending with the sensorial intrigue of incense burned down into a ‘snake of ashes.’ Without coming out to say it overtly, this is a poem about power and sexual relations, and the latent sensuality is rendered whimsically and evocatively in figurative language. The form of the poem is also consistent -- two tercets followed by a one-line end-stopped stanza that obliquely encapsulates each numbered section.”
and a mug crowned by coffee fog
as I dash through a deluge.
About the InterBoard Poetry Competition
Archive of IBPC Winners
3rd Place Winner, November 2005
