When your Man’s a Drunk
Joan Dobbie
Life gets all twisted when your man’s a drunk
That knot in your throat; that fist in your heart
He’ll cling, cry and plead in his morning funk
Life gets all twisted when your man’s a drunk
You know you should leave him and all that junk
But those awful words would tear him apart
Life gets all twisted when your man’s a drunk
That knot in your throat; that fist in your heart
Poet’s Bio
Joan Dobbie, yoga teacher grandmother, poet, co-hosts the monthly River Road Reading Series in Eugene, Oregon. Her poems appear in anthologies, chapbooks and online. With a 1988 UO MFA in Creative Writing, Joan occasionally conducts “Poetry Immersion” classes and workshops and writes “life stories” (family memoirs) on commission. Her first full length poetry collection, “Woodstock Baby”, came out in 2013. Her second, “The Language of Stone” (Uttered Chaos Press) was released in October, 2019.
Judge’s Comments – Marc Janssen
The top poems had a lyric element that effortlessly pulled me into the poem. The word choice, placement of stressed and unstressed syllables, particularly in the first place poem of “When your Man’s a Drunk” where each line is 10 syllables long.
Thank you so much… I am honored and thrilled to have received this prize.