| InterBoard Poetry Competition | |
MAKING LOVE TO THE RIGHT ANGEL
Christopher T. George
(Desert Moon Review)
I think I have the correct day on my calendar,
a smell of lavender and tar. Hmmmm, darling.
Black irises and purple daffodils, a city
rising from a swamp, refrigerators, tires.
We clink glasses in the empty restaurant,
a ring of crystal like a big brass bell
as Merlot swirls in our goblets. A menu written
in code, obsequious waiter speaks a strange lingo
but it doesn’t matter to either of us, a swish
of wings from your angel mates outside checking
on you. You angels are so insecure. Do I look
to you like a serial lover of angels? Your
feathers tickle, I have to admit, the love-
making could be more comfortable. We hardly
notice how the steel furniture sticks into
our tender parts, I feel as if I am floating
over the city, riding a lightning rod, hoo hah,
I’m coming home, a white dove, heavens above.
Judge C.J. Sage’s comments: “I chose to honor ‘Making Love to the Right Angel’mainly for its interesting phrases. The tossing in of ‘Hmmmm, darling’ to resolve the first couplet is interesting and attractive. ‘You angels are so insecure....a serial lover of angels’ is interesting, as is--even more so--‘Your // feathers tickle, I have to admit, the love-/making could be more comfortable.’And you have to love an exclamation like ‘hoo hah’thrown into a poem so calmly! ‘...riding a lightning rod, hoo hah,/I’m coming home...’ is a fine closure for this poem. (P.S. to the poet: I kept reading ‘Merlot swirls’ as "Merlot swings,’ perhaps a call back to the ‘ring’ of the line before, and I must say that I like it better as ‘swings’ -- it is fresher. Just a thought.)”
About the InterBoard Poetry Competition
Archive of IBPC Winners
Next Runner Up, May 2004
