| InterBoard Poetry Competition | |
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.”
About the InterBoard Poetry Competition
Archive of IBPC Winners
3rd Place Winner, December 2004
