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First Place Winner:
Natasha Donovan
Autumnal
there are
last vestiges of summer here and there:
the soft
glint of the ocean in the sun,
the rain
that only falls softly like tufts of cotton,
the
ice-cream truck, dead at the side of the road;
but mainly,
it is fall.
we no longer
walk slowly because the air
has changed.
what was once thick like
warm damp
blankets is now crisp and
easy to
enter.
Fall means
entering. Fall means unclenching the
desperate
fist I have holding on to warm nights
spent
stargazing. Letting go of long bare legs,
languid
rivers, and you.
Winter in
the city will always seem
colder then
where you are; maybe because
there is
more grey here; maybe simply because
you are not
here. You are there. Warming
up the
mountains.
it seems
endless. It makes me think about infinity
and
isolation and silence, but the cruel air here
has one
redeeming property: preservation.
I could
leave these words in the snow and
come back to
them when the crocuses
bloom and they would be there still,
thawing out, throwing a tiny glimmer
of summer into the frozen air.
projecting images on the frost-bitten
lawns.
of lingering evening light.
of consuming fires.
of heart beats and fruit juice and
your long, graceful arms.
For now, the leaves wither and
tumble,
cart-wheeling to the ground where I
lie,
listening to the earth's pulse and
wishing
it was just a little warmer.
Back to Feb 2009
Winners
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