2022 Poetry Contest Winner

Letter from the Past

You sent dandelions

by mail after a decade of silence

I fry an egg for my unborn girl
tell her the story of our day by the river

ice-cream
hands sticky
NYC humidity

She is an apparition
a letter-bead big
but can hear the sizzle
smell the butter

She will not make the mistake
of loving a taken man

My memories of your skinny arms
are her memories
her ears are dimples
as she curls into the home of me
and listens to songs
that remind us
how full life could have been
together

how full it is
far away from East Coast honeysuckle