Congratulations to the November winners of Poem of the Month. First place was “Gravitude” By Rana Hodge, Second Place “Love and Arsonist” by Revolution Chaput and Honorable Mention “Heavenly Ideas” By Hailey Yankey.

December theme is “Winter/Holiday”. Writers can take inspiration from nature, loved ones, tradition, or anything else. Poems are due by December 2 to be eligible for judging.

Love and The Arsonist
By Revolution Chaput

Skin a squamous knowing against me,
I slide off of you, dragged back like the carcass at your lips,
The embers falling downwards

There was a fire in Black Forest, more than a decade ago,
Ashes white and fleeting. The fire lasted days, alike,
Yet entirely unlike the stutter of snow, the flutter of its debris,
The shedding of the sky upon Earth. Love is a flurry attempting to warm itself,
Cinder, a flesh flayed in mimicry, hollowing its entrails so as to reinvent longing.

Years passed and I burned my arm on the stovetop. It piled over, sizzling and serpentine,
Striped down in red and didn’t leave. The burn peeled back at threads of skin, allowing muscles and organs to splay themselves into welcoming hosts,
Homes derelict, yet expertly decorated, prepared just so for phantom breaths,
Emptied gas canisters, hot and heavy under our tongues, and you weren’t there.

You weren’t there, and I am thankful that you aren’t here now.

Love and The Arsonist, where we are both the house aflame and the home extinguished. I am thankful that,
Despite the years of absence and generational ricochet,
I have still felt the flocking of wings at my chest. The newness of spring beside me.

I am grateful I never had the chance
To lose myself in you.

Heavenly Ideas
by Hailey Yankey

Have you ever heard the song that states
By someone who thinks he should know,
That if Heaven isn’t like Texas
Then he really doesn’t want to go?

Well, I can’t say what Heaven’s like
For I haven’t been there yet,
But I have a few ideas
And I sure hope they’ll be met.

I want birds and trees and green, green grass
And a sky that’s heavenly blue,
With fluffy white clouds floating lazily by
And a sun that shines all day through.

I want enough rain to keep things growing
So the grass and flowers don’t die,
And a soft, warm breeze blowing gently
The moon and stars in the sky

Heaven to me is God’s beautiful world
That I see everyday I live,
Filled with all the people I love
With all the love I know how to give.