May
15, 1991
-
Yvette Edmonds-Hay, Delta, British
Columbia -- The Maple (displayed
below)
Honourable Mentions: K.V.
Skene, Victoria, British Columbia, The Nude in
Art; and John O'Dyne, Cayley, Alberta, Ship of
Stars.
FIRST PLACE POEM
The Maple
By Yvette Edmonds-Hay
Delta, British Columbia
Its leaves play sport with dappled
sunlight:
bat the balls to each other
hide them in their creases, laugh
and spill golden treacle
as rustling draughts tickle them.
When the ball season is over,
it switches sport,
gets ready for countdown.
Hundreds of hands, fingers curling,
pour sepia on my gravel roof,
clog my gutters,
bury my lawn shin-deep in crackle,
remove my driveway.
I've wrestled it countless rounds:
topped it, sheared it, bullied it with
copper nails through its hide.
Each spring its crown reappears,
mushrooms like an atomic cloud
hijacking my sun.
It seems that every time I deny
it,
it redoubles its energy:
Branches poke, scramble, push,
fight to hold up the sky,
spray the intruding air with bullets
that ricochet off emptiness
and burst into plumes of green.
Persistent, insistent, resillient,
this Nimrod competes for carnival space.
Its thirst for trophies is insatiable,
ambitious as a weed.
Copyright
(c) 2004 for the author, all rights reserved.
