Second Place

I won an ISU Mary Reid McBeth Literary Award in poetry. On April 23rd, I will receive the prize at a reception where I am also invited to do a "reading."I submitted a collection of eight poems - including the following, which I'll share here:

The Problem with Coastal Liquor Markets

quiet reports of giant bivalves
meander through romantic conversations,
business transactions

monster clams, dark and seemingly dead
objects of distorted vision and thought
resting myths on the ocean floor

able to swallow divers whole
growing the missing persons report
young couples never able to divorce

the rum merchants and whiskey runners
with tipsy clients know all the good cliffs
an arrangement of good sense

“All toast the giant clam,
our fanciful legend goes especially well
with a bottle of our Spiced Oyster Rum!”

the possibility of existence is terribly exciting
the customers want to believe, but only in jollity
the flutes are coming in, the bongos will soon begin

sales and marketing reports litter the beach
empty bottles with colorful labels twinkle in the sun
from the deep an eruption of bubbles disturbs the surface