Second Place Winner, December 2002 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Second Place Winner, December 2002

SEMI-BLANK VERSE COUPLET THING
Jenni Russell
(Blueline Poetry Forum)

Downstairs the blister of popping bacon
and toaster-spring prod sleepy feet from bed

to hardwood. It's the trance of flared nostrils.
The soap stars never live this way, they wake

in business suits with pineapple slices
relished on bone china, daisies, and fresh

ground coffee served courtesy of Miguel,
the butler. Nikki Newman never wiped

a snotty nose or toilet trained toddlers!
Her dawn unbuttons slowly, like a silk blouse,

not a cotton bathrobe. Varicose veins
and chapped lips don't exist, that's too mundane

for tales from Genoa City. Just once,
I wish she'd run out of toilet paper.

Comment from the judges (River Styx editors): “We liked the second place one because of its humor and artless straightforward qualities, though that title needs work.”