First Place Winner, November 2008 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

First Place Winner, November 2008

RUSSIAN CRUCIFIXES *Emily Violet Swithins* (The Writer’s Block) Mama kept the Russian crucifixes in the same drawer as her panties. It gave her pleasure to think of the rough wood rubbing up against silk. She’d bury swan eggs to make flowers more beautiful, and broken glass to protect the garden from thieving foxes. Dirt was magic; only city people called it filth. She beat me with a cedar switch; afterwards my wounds smelled holy. When the black dust storms descended, we hid in the underground shelter, while papa read from the Old Testament. I blamed myself for sneaking a peek at the crucifixes and trying on mama’s underwear, for kissing the Jewish boy with my wicked tongue, and hiding from papa at the bottom of the well. The next morning we walked through the ruins, and papa found the crucifixes, still neatly wrapped in silk. He beat mama with his calloused fists. Afterwards she filled the house with new crucifixes, the cheap pine ones you buy in the dollar store. The old ones she buried with the corpses of sunflowers. I like to think of them that way, tangled in golden hair, little priests in the arms of harlots. Comments by judges Hélène Cardona and John Fitzgerald: “Strong imagery and command of language, with a great rhythm and flow, make this piece stand out. It’s full of contrast and surprises, and poetic lines, with a very strong end.”


About the InterBoard Poetry Competition Archive of IBPC Winners 2nd Place Winner, November 2008