Beyond

by Victoria Maynard

When I think of you

and I almost always do,

it is your smile I would recognize

out of a thousand other

ivory grins.

The shape of your lips,

curling up like sleeping kittens

so soft and warm.

Sometimes I think I feel them, feather light brush

across my own

and I smile too.

How many years ago

did you strand me in this

arid desert of life, take your

smile and go beyond my reach,

my sight,

my touch, to some unknown

space in the universe

that preachers call "A better place"

Does time exist where you are?

Can you feel, or are you only

a wispy cloud floating

between the stars.

Where is that smile,

like no other

I will ever know,

until my last breath is gone,

and I can search

the heavens for your soul.

HONORABLE MENTION:

Normal

by Blake Valin

No one suspects that I am not normal.

It's cool how well my insanity is

blanketed by nods, smiles, solid eye-

contact, so well controlled

to flummox the experts.

Behind stage the light are out,

I wander where wolves might live

in Effigy, saga of an Indian girl,

fourth wife of a Zionist.

What if he brought me a family of

wolves he shot and told me

to skin them, preserve them

for his bloodthirsty collection?

The moon would darken at my wail,

a death howl to send shivers up

the mountain, send the snows

crashing down upon us all.

I smile, nod to him, vision my

knife plunge into his irreverent heart.

On stage, you smile, nod back at me,

suspect that I believe you are normal.

HONORABLE MENTION: