Each year we post the winning entry for our Poetry contest. This year's winner is Bonnie Korta.
The theme this year was "The Long Hot Summer."
Summer Splintered
My summer ruined
its softness destroyed by sharp forces
June's laser ballet behind my eye
July's humerus bone in jagged smithereens
August's regrets gnawing at my soul
their forked tongues have sucked all the sugar out
I am captive in summer's humid envelope
like a butterfly in a Mason jar
able to see the season blooming all around me
yet unable to open myself to her short lived beauty
No sashaying bright frocks
no outdoor music at Bynum or Saxapahaw
no skinny dipping in pools of redemption
no inhaling roses in the garden I promised myself
no picnics or hikes or vacations
Porch bound spectator, I dive into self pity
not knowing if these few moments of splendor
will be my last summer
out of the corner of my sidelined eye
glimpse of iridescence, ruby and jade
a hummingbird's wing fluttering, a whirligig
same speed
, same sheen my brother once
owned
How his heart would leap
to sweat under this brute sun
take delight in the return of the honeybee
marvel at the strange purple flower shooting up among the
weeds
alive again for just one hour in this long hot summer
I pray that he is one of the winged creatures
ruffling the zinnias of my discontent on this wasted
afternoon
I know it is my duty as his agent, representing all my
dead
to move my eyes across the panorama of all our summers
seize the remains of this one while it still blazes
rejoice in the grace I do not deserve
