Carmen Butcher - Honorable Mention


To Suicide

Even the stars forgot my name
that night
and so I knew I was no longer
lonesome
but dead      when a soaring 
in my heart happened      the black 
dome broke coldly
into fragments like bats
fallen at my feet which
burned from the heat
of fusion and the bright old 
shards of
time
I must stop to catch my breath      you exhilarate but 
once      
all of life is parenthetical      like that above and 
this      you know the ancient bird flying through the hall
is us   or
stand on an A and a Z
one foot on each
and tell me you don't feel bracketed      die being the only
verb that ever truly loved me


To Loss

ever been lonesome    ever
in the dead 
of dark 
a leopard 
stalking    hungers
talk to me of old 
green live oak rings   sand
hold my mind   if not my body   close
to your sunset love
let me feel the logic and the flowers
of your thinking down my spine    
ignore me   if you must   legs stretched out
before you leaning against preoccupation and
the rough bark of your own significance    but 
open the door with my name on it 
first
I will listen to that jungle
which most screams
behind eyes which must
look       
all the books I read
are about you
or about me with you    
the stack beside my bed unread    
the truest story of my life
I will not sleep now

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