First Place Winner, December 2008 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

First Place Winner, December 2008

Milk Noodle *Greta Bolger* (The Waters) Warmed whole milk with a pat of butter the broth, skinny noodles the substance. Our favorite lunch, made by a nearly blind grandfather for shy Heidi and bold Greta. He sat alongside us with old coffee, a heel of bread and a slice of salami, chewing softly. I can still hear him humming hymns as he washed up, hear him calling us in from play. Herein! Zeit, um zu essen! Sie Kinder haben Hunger! And it’s true, we did hunger for a father more sober than his only son, for words we could easily understand, for foods we could easily digest, milk noodle, oatmeal; for his calloused hand smoothing our silky blonde heads, warm as the strange soup we slurped, foreign, yet familiar as sun. Comments by judges Hélène Cardona and John Fitzgerald: “We liked the imagery of this poem, its simplicity and intimacy. The poet captured a vivid memory and successfully shared it with us, as if we were there.”