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Contests : War Poetry Contest : Past Winners : 2009 : Franke Varca
HIROSHIMA GHOST COUPLE
Engaged in bed, asleep this still
as if nothing disturbed them.
The cloud that looked like war was just a bird,
the bird that looked like war was just a kite.
Waking, they sit at a table, they spread honey
over slices of peeled green apples
while, at the end of every hour, a small radio
features a symphony of warning;
if something were ever to happen to them—
if something were ever to happen—
the most extreme, fanatical heat
feels at first
so cool. On fire, pink and reddening
like the exploding
of an exclamation point, buds
of cherry blossoms in blister.
Before the kimono she wore with dragons
brands her skin,
and the decay of what he tastes
is himself,
before the ash that looks like rice
thrown at a wedding—
—look at how they go,
sharing the seat of one bicycle, waist weld to waist,
riding the steep declines of streets, gathering speed
as if to take off.
This poem was a finalist in the 2009 War Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers. Copyright is reserved to the author.
About Franke Varca
Franke Varca has received a Lannan Foundation Poetry Fellowship from the Folger Library of Washington, DC; an Academy of American Poets A.E. Claeyssens, Jr. Poetry Prize; the Bryan Lawrence Award in Poetry from the University of Houston; and Second Prize from Hollins University's Lex Allen National Poetry Contest. Most recently, Mr. Varca is the recipient of a Civitas Fellowship for work with children in Detroit public schools, and a Zell Fellowship from the University of Michigan where he is completing his MFA.
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