The winners of the 2012 Sue Boynton Poetry Contest were invited to the Alaska Ferry Terminal building to read their poems. Sharp eyes might recognize this contestant as Bellingham Daily Photo's very own Lizziviggi.
Congratulations!
Lizzi's winning poem:
My Mother's Afterlife
She prepares for our arrival--
brushes pine needles off the table,
unfurls the checkered cloth
with a snap
of her wrist.
Mourning doves hush
as she stacks clacking
kindling next to the firepit
dead with ashes.
When she ceases
they cry to each other
across the shrouding mist.
She sets out canvas
camping chairs and rests
in the one nearest the pond.
She has years to wait.
A nymph lumbers from under
the verdant surface
onto a cow lily and dances
into its dragonfly shape.
New wings unfurled, it sees her
with many eyes.
It clings to the old body, its pale
new one jewelling blue-green.
