2021
1st Place Winner
David Schmidt / Panama City, FL
Fuhrr Ant the Guns of ‘39
| Machine-blue pistols point mindless at his cranium He is marching through boulder-strewn woods As if nothing were wrong Cheerful busy warblers watch them pass Under luxuriant canopy of green He is a courier and not the running kind Somehow he has the wrong last name And was born in the wrong country And worships a different way Soldier bangs grip against his head To the water! He shouts. Keep straight! In this lake just one year ago he swam Its color rich and memories deep. No family left— Now on him other souls depend. Behind him rests Mercedes-Benz Loaned by partisan friend It had gone wide open for awhile Across frontier in night But Poland was not to be— Three tires blown crashing barricade Waiting craft amongst cedars lay— Machine-gunned canopy and propeller broken, and pilot missing All that matters is gone for now, except for God And guns, and arcane secrets known to few. One hundred one, and American now; never talked and never will |
2nd Place Winners
Christian Childers / Hopkinsville, KY Sunday Morning Muse Sharon Cunningham / Newhall, CA Within the Twinkle of Sand and Stars Darlene Dann / Milwaukie, WI A French Villanelle in Tribute to My Dear Mom Sydney Duncan / San Francisco, CA Medicine Jax Garrett / Milwaukie, WI Teeth Jim Healey / Aptos, CA Mr. Rogers, Mr. Jackson, and That Awesome Mr. Beck Hannah Holtz / Centerville, OH Dorm Rozann Kraus / West Stockbridge, MA Half-baked History: Peach Cobbler Hana Krieger / Palo Alto, CA Regression Analysis Tracey Lee / Landenberg, PA Rhubarbie | Julia Miller / Chicago, IL Only One Swipe Away John Molineaux / Severna Park, MD Ollie Sandra Nelms-Ludwig / Bedford, VA Ashtray Terry O’Banion / Cathedral City, CA In My Backyard There Be Dragons Elisabeth Otocka / Virginia Beach, VA Who Waters the Orchids? Stella Plein / St. Louis, MO Question of Relativity Venancio Rivera / Perth Amboy, NJ King of the Wilds Alyssa Roberts / Basking Ridge, NJ The Little Palm Warbler Chloe Shiffman / New York, NY Dead Dog Beach Victoria Yang / Brooklyn, NM Janus’s Favorite Flower (opioid crisis) |
3rd Place Winners
| John Alfonso / Tamarac, FL Bonded Patricia Batteate / San Jose, CA The Final Verse Richard Breese / Youngstown, OH Hound Dog Cleo Brown / New York, NY April’s Fool Irma Collins / Winchester, VA The Departure Linda Coppola / Seminole, FL The Letter Rodger Cunningham / Atascosa, TX Pendulums Mary Daley / Roseburg, OR That Blooming Onion Margareth Debrosse / Valley Stream, NY The Barrel Neal Donner / Los Angeles, CA Creative Destruction Romy du Jong / Cocoa, FL Pretty, Quick Draw, and Watch Turkey Janie Durham / Cordele, GA The Daydreamers Wilson Engel / Gilbert, AZ Chloe’s Desire at Last Michael Fiore / Schenectady, NY Off to School Eva Garcia-Mayers / San Diego, CA A Walk in the World Marion Hays / Vacaville, CA The Why of Me Carol Heineman / Lehigh Acres, FL Les Sabots Jan Hetherly / Scroggins, TX Sharing Foxholes Myraka Jones / The Villages, FL Birthright Frances Kalapodis / New Franklin, OH Memories Sugwon Kang / Oneonta, NY A Storm Story Joyce Keedy / Towson, MD Little Lamb Kim Klardie / Turlock, CA My Nose Steven Lambert / Warsaw, IN The Modern Prometheus Annette Lamphere / Colville, WA Winter in Alaska Kathy Langen / Batavia, NY Mama Erin Maas / Atlanta, GA The Tree Julie Mandell / Poway, CA Before Amanda Ron Matros / Mesilla, NM Ode to the Cretan Runner Nancy Medlin / Chesapeake, VA The In-Between Time Donald Millner / Durham, NC Seeing Joy Darryl Monteiro / Fall River, MA Lip Burn Sherrie Morrison / Lexington, SC Messy Business Jeffery Moser / Aurora, CO March 4, 1861—Lincoln’s First Inaugural Len Mykietyn / Jupiter, FL Bittersweet Charles Poole / Prescott, AZ Voice in the Dark Mitra Pourmehr / San Rafael, CA Time Richard Raunio / Minneapolis, MN A Ball to Kick Brenna Reeter / Chula, MO Everyday Life Patricia Richter / New Berlin, WI Jeff Cindi Rockwell / Elizabethtown, PA Simple Pleasure Mary Sartor / Brownsburg, IN Rapture Entanglement Jenni Schwartz / Las Vegas, NV Intoxication Rex Seigler / Wichita Falls, TX Failed Haiku Robert Skeele / Anacortes, WA Dear Heart Ian Sloan / Upper Marlboro, MD Moving Forward with Faith Roger Stang / Belgrade, MN A Man’s Man Linda Susiene / Pasco, WA Cancer Kenneth Swan / Marion, IN Of Art and Nature Deborah Tash / San Francisco, CA An Ode to Green | Debbie Toliver / Rotan, TX Tears Really Do Burn Jeffrey White / Elkhorn, WI Prolixity Greg Wilcox / Tacoma, WA Amid a Dreary Rain Linda Williams-Avila / Hercules, CA Torn Fruit Jennifer Barradale / Middletown, NJ Cat Scratch Jackie Batty / Portland, OR I Will Breathe Life into You Even When You Are Just Ash Susan Marie Black / Cookeville, TN Awg the Dog Daphne Boyd / Altadena, CA The Red Man Ross Briese / Elkhorn, NE Confession Beslen Childers / Wallingford, CT A Nice Dark Mack Cooper / Boston, MA The Wandering Jew Andrea de Freitas / Denton, TX Mycelium Marissa Defino / Fair Lawn, NJ Bare Cedar Samantha Dewitt / Lakewood, WA The Allure Anthony Di Virgilio / Stoneham, MA The Bancroft Burglar Mila Fisher / Dallas, TX Igneous Francisco Gonzalez / Covington, GA Balloons and Pork Jennifer Gutierrez / Corona, CA Rêve Grace Haak / Phoenix, AZ Nope Corin Hamilton / Sacramento, CA Ite, Missa Est Jonathan Hopkins / Suitland, MD Sonnet XXV William Jefferson / Gretna, LA Christmas Meal Shamerra Jeffres / Charleston, SC Amorous Destruction Erin Jeon / Irvine, CA Koreatown Lindsay Johnson / Fort Collins, CO It Seems a More Honest Woman Would Run Into the Woods Melissa Joines / Raleigh, NC Clinical Depression Aanvi Koolwal / Fremont, CA Conversation Karly Kramer / Clarksville, TN The Mysteries of Life Lin LeCompte / Austin, TX Aurelia Adriano Llosa / Los Angeles, CA mRNA, My Bull Johnette Loefgren / Spring Hill, FL The Language of Her Hair Brion Luetjen / Secaucus, NJ A Slight Happy Katharine Luzzatto / Suffolk, VA Syrup Kimberly Martin / Hurricane, WV Metallic Love Lynne Martin / Tampa, FL A Question Maya Martinez / Plantation, FL Lover Alena Marvin / Pensacola, FL Epistle for Hades Lanai McAuley / Bayonne, NJ Cybertronic Reality Eric McKay / Dexter, MO Violet Cate Mitstifer / Hudson, OH Schrödinger Had It Right James O’Neill / Brooklyn, NY Still Natalie Orman / Saranac Lake, NY Monochromatic Richard Pate / Sebastopol, CA My Favorite Restaurant Susan Rahmann / Crestone, CO Fish Tank Tahreem Rehman / Annapolis, MD Secrets of the Sea Cynthia Rudy / Tazewell, VA On the Other Side of Plastic Abby Scott / Wayland, MA Kite Josef Smith / Grand Blanc, MI Umbra Ariel Tidwell / Denver, CO Putrefaction Aleksy Umbers / Woodinville, WA Below the Frigid Skies Pantoum |