Lyric Poetry Award - 2026

1.

Then: driving to California / the sand’s grip /the car’s lilt / the wrong time to fall asleep dreaming / of blue meadows / mud-meadows / heat starching everything / everything a question / of wonder/ what to do with it / what to undo / with it / When just last night: / J. punched through glass / waved one red-hand / Waved two red-hands / Suddenly surprised to see daylight / Like: we lived / through this? / Strange / where miracles express / themselves / Where days continue /

Locking the door / and tossing the knives / setting small fires / in old stoves / Watch the smoke curl sky-ward / daggering the dark / with gray / syllables / Face-first on concrete / and one produces / blood / My knees / a bleak roadmap / my hands / a soft / tribute / to softness / some skin / I left there / & won’t get / back / I have learned / to accept many / strange acceptances /

2.

There were two fake horses / on the road to Indio / A man selling plums / from hole-riddled buckets / sweeping stems to the dirt / He calls out to me still:/ Love’s not supposed to / then the wind gets / the rest / I have, often, / turned / and unturned the lock / am proven dangerous / ly indecisive / Have lived with people who hit / just because /

Sometimes the smoke / is really snow churned / from the bluff / and I am surprised / by the landscape’s revision / but then / the body revises / also /Landmarks confuse me / because what land isn’t / marked / There is hardly a moment / I don’t remember / saying / change demands some sacrifice /

I am shocked by the precision / of starlight / But I am, often, / also lying / about what shocks me /

That I swept up the glass / without question / That I false-start most joys / and jump-start my grief / like a car / Like I’m guilty / to ever / think I was done with it /

3.

E. talks about how / in writing class / all the Americans want to know / what one thinks about / when walking through checkpoints / Really / she says / it’s more tedium of passage / As in: / dream of Jordanian ice cream / sweet cheese stringing out / like a sentence / Allow this boredom / also / as a right / distraction a kind / of kindness / Our fears are both large / and quiet / I have never once checked out / of a hotel on time / and I have never once / not felt deeply / concerned by this / 

Truth can exist / in multiples / As in: / the olive groves smell / like smoke / but also / the olive groves smell / like olives / My father is haunted by ghosts / but also / my father is guarded by angels / The blood of my grandmother / matters / but also / why should I have / to say this? / 

No I do not / count the ways / my lover smiles / as much as I count / the ways my lover weeps / And yes, I consider /this also / a failure / of witness / 

4.

And sometimes / I lose track of the point / where devotion / becomes / an obsession / And sometimes / in cars / I drive with / the ghost of / my grandmother / and ask what / to do / with a land I can / cup at / the knuckle /

And sometimes / the car spins wildly / in dreams / ferrying away / the feeling of puncture / So I fear dreams / but also / I learn them / as wellness / practice /

The ghost of my grandmother toils / with countless rose petals / turns and unturns / the radio dial / the car is filled / with her drugstore novels / Lauren / she screams / who are we to scoff at love / of any kind /

Learning to live / just to be / alive / is a full-time / occupation / Once / I held a handful / of pills / just to see / how far up / to the edge / I could edge /

Teta / I reply / but the wind’s roar / through the window / swallows me / I am always trying / to remember / the last thing / I meant / to tell / her /

5.

Some things that have / shocked me / : an eel washed / up on the beach / spine dull and yellow / The way the sun pauses / on glass / Splitting my nail on / something soft / brief capacity / of everything / to shatter / or be shattered /

When I was / nineteen / I worked for a woman / who asked me / daily / to collect the bodies of / bent-necked birds /who flew blindly / into /the glass wall of the family / pool house / into the dead twisted stem / of their bodies /

My hands did not / shake / with the quiet heft / of them /

So everyone / eventually stumbles / upon the life / they choose to ignore /

So everyone / is guilty / of something /

Who hasn’t / at one point / rationed the love / they can afford / to give / 

6.

There is no such thing / as incidental / death / All death / is full / of incident / When my grandmother was a ghost / she told me that once / she saw a / struck deer dying / 

on the side / of the road / And she knew / she must draw / the knife / Like I knew / I must carry / the birds / those dead birds / those bodied-birds / praying for their passage / like my grandmother prayed / for this passage / the pavement a river / A darklung / full / of blood / the moon / a vigilant student / 

Like we both knew / death is an interruption / of movement / 

Roads / are the things we sometimes / survive / and sometimes / don’t / 

Before my grandmother / was a ghost / she mumbled offhandedly / about the swollen bellies / of the starved / The homesick / witness / of children / The men cleaved in half like glaciers / 

She had seen them / and saw them / often / in dreams / 

7.

And sometimes I make / Plath-approved playlists / but my mother skips all / the songs / And sometimes she asks / me / what do you have / to be so sad about /

Sadness is a right / but we must ask / for it over / and over And often / I find / I am more / tortured by sadness / I don’t have / a right to /

Sometimes / when I can’t afford / therapy / I go to see psychics / and recycle / the same questions over / and over / And once I found one / who had / no answers / only more / questions /

I told her I had / only dreams /What torture / she said / The possibility of possibility /

like an anti-pastoral / pastoral / where the dream / is a right we all / have a right to /

8.

Anti-pastoral pastoral: / roadblood like rosebud / a school bus's / shredded tires / Buildings stubbed / like cigarettes / This dear / and wasted / sky / 

Columns of light / shift through / glass / like dashboard / dancers / 

The skirt of the evening / raises / recedes / Fault lines of flesh / Shoulder of farmland / 
A bone dredged / through gutters / of dirt / Leg of the river / Stomach of sea / 

A soon-enough-wasteland / is a dried flower / rain-soaked shoes / left out by the door / A hand to reach / and keep reaching / in the dark / 

Our cousin sleeps with a bible / beneath her pillow / In case she dies in the bombings / she wants to be close / to her god / She wants to dream / of men swallowed / by whales / and not / the blood tidal / - reach of / a missile 

9.

After my grandmother was / a ghost / she turned in the car / seat next to me / asked me / to dream / about rosebuds / also / Asked me to dream / about sage leaves / Asked me to dream about / my father / screeching / in laughter / the sea a / dazzling possibility / for life / Asked me to dream / about dreaming / for dreaming’s sake /

an exercise / in asking life / to fill you / also /

This / she said / is all we have /

Once she was a woman / also / More than a ghost / more than an angel / Full of more / than possibility / Once she believed / and kept believing / she would / one day / go home / again