So... The local poetry competition (sponsored by the Conway, NH public library) is rolling around again. It's not 'till April, but I'm thinking of which poem of mine, if any, I'll submit.

Two years ago, I won second place in my age group ('older than dirt') with my poem Bubbles http://garnet-43.deviantart.com/art/Bubbles-25995969 . Not that winning was any big thing. I got a token prize, and a chance to read my poem on the local access cable TV channel. For about a year after that, when people came up to me and said. "I saw you on TV!" I knew that the station was still re-running the poetry contest episode...

Last year I submitted one of my best light & happy rhyming poems. It didn't even place, so I take it the judges don't like light & happy rhyming poems. They probably wouldn't like one of my erotic poems either, thought I'm tempted to submit one just to shake things up.

I'm thinking of submitting a poem that I wrote in Sept 2005. It's not light & happy, or blatantly erotic, so it should at least have a fighting chance. I can't remember whether I've posted it here on this blog or not, but here it is:

Crowded Sidewalk, Autumn Afternoon

At first
I thought it was
A second glance-

You know,
The admiring spark
That jumps my way
Makes my day
Especially when it comes
From a younger man.

Yeah, he was younger
But...the look was longer
Than a second glance
And more intense.

I heed the invitation
To meet his eyes
Brown... brown eyes
Complexion dark
Curls... little ringlets
Frame his face.

A paper bag
Cradled in his arm
Hugged to his body
...A bottle of wine.

“I don’t want to drink it alone”
The message arced
Intense, unspoken
And tinged
With desperation.

A final flash
Before he passed
Proud defiance lit
The resignation
In his eyes.

“I know I cannot have you, Lovely Lady,
But this is not the end-
For what you have shared
You cannot rescind.”