| InterBoard Poetry Competition | |
ONE TWENTY ONE
Dick Case
(The Melic Review RoundTable)
Let’s have it for Natalie, Natalie
Jean walking the neighborhood,
looking for licorice
in pleated pink pants,
a little fatter the day after
she was alone with a whole bird
stuffed with crumpled bread.
Forget her brother.
He walked away from want
with enough to cross the river
before nuts and bolts shut off
the flow of a morning broken
on the stone beneath his feet
with the bones of Natalie’s bird.
He blows white from an egg,
then swallows the yoke.
Wouldn’t you know, this is over
before anyone understands.
The river isn’t in Natalie’s
neighborhood and the bird
should have flown its coop.
While the bolt enters the nut,
her brother walks into town,
twisted candy in his hand.
Judge John Poch’s comment: “Yes, let’s have it for Natalie. I like the unexpected ‘have’ here instead of ‘hear.’ It’s a hook that draws us into the poem knowing we’re not going to get language-as-usual. The poem moves from surprise to surprise, and it’s nice we don’t know what’s coming next, and the repetition of images somehow reassures us that the poem isn’t random but intentional and authoritative. ‘Forget her brother’ seems a little disingenuous. For a beginning poet, I’d say it’s ironic and therefore interesting. But for an accomplished poet, I’d say it’s a distraction to the poem.”
About the InterBoard Poetry Competition
Archive of IBPC Winners
3rd Place Winner, April 2004
