February
15, 2003
-
- Susan Constable, Nanoose Bay -- From
the Poop Deck (displayed below)
- Ellaraine Lockie, Sunnyvale, California
-- Litigation at Lunch (displayed below)
- Jo-Ann Godfrey, Sherwood Park, Alberta
-- big, beautiful ocean REBEL!
- Carol E. Sandau, Calgary, Alberta --
Bad Hair Day.
- K.I.M., Burbank, California -- Creation
Song.
- Sophie Soil, Thornhill, Ontario -- Winter.
- Natalie Smolenski, Plano, Texas -- The
Witch.
- Ellaraine Lockie, Sunnyvale, California
-- Love Me Tender in Midlife.
- Anne O’Hearn, Burnaby, British
Columbia -- Night Stalker.
- Carol E. Sandau, Calgary, Alberta --
Cowboy Oscar.
- Jo-Ann Godfrey, Sherwood Park, Alberta
-- Flight.
- Rebecca St. Cyr, Toronto, Ontario --
Dream.
Honourable Mentions: K.I.M.,
Burbank, California -- Night Light; Rachel
Shaw-Couture, Lachine, Quebec -- Brotherhood;
Carol E. Sandau, Calgary, Alberta -- Unconditional
Love; Ellaraine Lockie, Sunnyvale, California
-- Where the Want Went.
FIRST PLACE POEM
From the Poop Deck
By Susan Constable
Nanoose Bay, British Columbia
Dear God
I’m sure this exodus
will see the death of all of us.
I’ve had it right up to my nose.
Why was it Noah that you chose
to set this ark upon the seas?
I’d rather drown, or burn, or freeze
than be surrounded by this smell –
a kind of excremental hell.
There’s yucky piles of gushy
goop
(including crow and parrot poop)
accumulating in the dark
that thickens beams which shape the ark.
There’s panda pies and weasel whiz
and turkey turds and fox’s fizz,
plus doggy doo and piggy pee
which make the decks quite slippery.
I’ve scraped the gunk from
every plank.
The smell is awful. Putrid. Rank.
I scoop the poop and plug my nose;
the stench, however, only grows.
Please stop the clouds from pouring rain
which forces me to dump again
some thousand tons of shit and pee
into the endless rising sea.
I slosh around in stinking mud
of camel crap and cricket crud.
There’s panther piss and monkey muck,
loose scat from every goose and duck.
Humongous turds from one sick beast
are odorous to say the least.
There’s piddle from each gnat and gnu
and donkey dung that sticks like glue.
For forty days and forty nights
we’ve put up with your creatures’ rights
to food and lodging on this ark.
We’ve done our part. Made no remark
about conditions we’ve endured
but, really, it’s much too absurd.
In fact, I’ve come to quite abhor
the animals I loved before.
Oh, Lord, I can’t go on this
way,
so please believe me when I say,
I plan to kill them one by one
if you send rain instead of sun.
I know it’s wrong – a mortal sin –
but understand the state I’m in.
The future? Well, it’s up to you.
Love Noah’s wife –
and hubby, too.
Copyright
(c) 2004 for the author, all rights reserved.
SECOND PLACE POEM
Litigation at Lunch
By Ellaraine Lockie
Sunnyvale, California
She’s a vegetarian she asserts
Reading animal rights from the menu
Justice for all
certified by the decisive fall
of her salad forked gavel.
After I order prime rib medium
rare
Her nose wrinkles
with the stench of condescension
Smog of an anti-stockyard statute
tainting the space between us.
And I flinch in defense
from the unspoken accusation
The two-second trial prosecuted
A premeditated vegan verdict of guilt
As the evidence arrives red and innocent
My anger eases into awkward
And in the interest of an appeal
or perhaps compromise
I comment on the similar taste
we share in shoes – leather strap sandals
Copyright
(c) 2004 for the author, all rights reserved.
