Contest Winning Poems

First Place

The Morning After


I’m contemplating how the snake knows
it’s time to shed her skin. Imagining the internal
clock of now that wakes her, or, simply,
winter over, spine expanding
exponentially when she stretches,
straightens from the eternal coil
of sleeping and waking. Maybe
it’s the startle of a boy stepping near
above the rock she’s chosen
to wait for summer heat.
One day, like a tossed glove, like
a dress which no longer contains the shape
of her seduction, skin breaks.
The slow pull of self comes
like Nature always taught. The robes
of distinction, of wife, mother, lover,
sinner, are all behind her.
The boy whose eye is keen
will find the remnant, take it home,
tack it above his bed.
He’ll admire the length and depth,
will dream the dream of her
the knowledge of her existence
full in his head, the way to sun baked
rock, winding, but clear.

Cindy Dubielak Yeager

Second Place

For Jackson

My son’s head smells of boy,

of sweat and dust,

not unpleasant,

but inhale as deeply as I can

there is not one single trace of baby there.

Nor is there in the way

he kicks a soccer ball

or rides his bike –

elbows out, feet churning –

determined and alive

chin set in what I know

to be concentration,

not the stubbornness his teachers see.

Know too even as he ducks my kiss

that later he will throw his arms around me

just for the briefest moment

rest his forehead on mine,

make the world recede

only to be gone in a whirl.

He is never still for long enough

for me to search for

the smell of that baby boy

until he sleeps

on his back

arms outstretched

as though trying to stop

the free-fall into high school

and he is right there

at the door of the plane with his

chute packed and on

and I hold my breath as he

jumps without

a moment’s hesitation for

what he wants,

and he is gone from my sight

for a moment until he

reappears, small

and smaller still.

Kristine Williams

Third Place