Second Place Winner, December 2004 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Second Place Winner, December 2004

DEVIL TIED SHOES
Jacob Jans
(Writer’s Block)

when three I smiled at moons
painted on a clown’s cheek
steamed between steel beams
threw shoes onto a bridge
years later a nail shoved rubber
up my foot, no splash no scream
just mom horrified, tweezers
pushed numb pulled warm
I didn’t belong away or
home ñ neighbors
were racist, scared of bombs
played pool, watched tv porn
I had my saxophone, kung fu
felt happy cancer lasted
through christmas, god wasn’t
dead, I wasn’t ready
to need, to need
twenty loving years
I still don’t trust entertainers
still not my lover’s body rising

Judge David Hernandez’s comments: “The strength of ‘Devil Tied Shoes’ lies in its brevity. From one short line to the next, the poem hurtles at a whiplashed pace, turning from the profound to the mundane in half a breath. And before the reader knows it, the poem screeches to a wonderful ending.”