First Place Winner, November 2010 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

First Place Winner, November 2010

HUSH *Jude Goodwin* (The Waters) When the rains come there’ll be pumpkins rotting in the garden and bargain store spider webs heavy on the leafless sumac and when the darkness humps the grasses, clumps along the concrete walk there’ll be poppies bleeding onto stone, there’ll be old voices reading the names. When the cold grows bold there’ll be death in every window box — and love strokes me, love says shush. When the supper’s done there’ll be a fireside and strings drawn from a wooden box, and love says hush. Comments by judge Paul Lisicky: “The music, the line breaks, the evocative description: everything in sync here.”