Winner
Jonah Raskin
Rohnert Park, CA
When It Was New
When it was new,
he was a young,
flashy philosopher in a red Alpha Romeo,
a Romeo on wheels,
navigating the map of metaphysics.
Now that he's no longer young and
it's no longer new.
It sits in his driveway,
on top of the hill and he
asks Socratic questions,
wonders what to do with
his dream car—
the va-va-va-voom vehicle of
his vanished youth,
the license plate holder rusted,
the speedometer no longer running smoothly,
but both keep going,
man and machine,
take the curves more slowly now,
caress the steering wheel with all the
sweetness of old age,
but tinker on it no longer,
Alpha Romeo that he might
put in reverse,
travel back in
time to that time when
he was young and
it was new.
Honourable Mention
Aggie Ebrahimi
Athens, GA
The Lure of Objects
The Lure of Objects We're Sure We Saw Flying
Gripping actors (on stage)∧ are UFOs. Oprah are UFOs. So too
the girl on campus who wears stripes and checks, together
and carries a Hello Kitty—the one Hello Kitty—backpack.
She eats
yet
from aluminum foil
just like the rest of us! So too
are the Dalai Lama UFOs
and athletes, vegans, some (smiling)∧Sudanese refugees(must also be handsome)
in the United States.∧
People wearing white tennis shoes generally
are not UFOs.
A girl I once knew, her name parked and leapt: Pamela Mashburn. She was (singular)∧ UFO.
(Musician)∧ is UFO. Music ∧(is UFO)
And potentially UFO or merely genius:
Child Prodigy
Computer Scientist
Benicio del Toro
and Jesus Christ
if Christ tread our land ∧(or did he hover?)
∨(or did he hover?)
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