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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

O World David Hedges O world, you’re such a pretty place! More people should applaud your form, More should appreciate your face. O world, you’re such a pretty place— Your splendid attributes, your grace, Your constancy, beyond the norm. O world, you’re such a pretty place, More people should applaud your form. Poet’s Bio David

Mates Nita Countryman Seven mergansers drift in the calm— one swims to the side, apart. Black crowns bob on the trailing foam. Seven mergansers drift in the calm. Six birds move like swans in tandem, paired for a season in limerent heart. Seven mergansers drift in the calm. One swims to the side, apart. Poet’s

Judged by Marc Janssen 1st Honorable Mention: “Pale Ring” by Charles Castle 2nd Honorable Mention:” Here and Gone” by Jim Johnson 3rd Honorable Mention: “Leaf Ballet” by Emory D. Jones The triolet is a cousin to the rondeau, a French invention and one that was popular in the seventeenth century. The requirements to write a

IN ATHENS WITH MARGUERITE Connie Soper As daylight faded and before evening breezes  gifted relief, we climbed rickety stairs to the roof.  I could say we were wicks on candles anticipating the match: spark to flame, the future  all around us no matter where we looked.  You might remember it differently; how we rose,  rung

Beethoven Never Saw an Ocean Colette Tennant But he felt its pulse in his wild, salty blood, so that’s the first thing he will do in heaven – follow the breeze to where sand starts, everything drifting down toward adagio swells, plagal cadence waves, gulls’ glissando, his coat tails unfurled by the aleatoric wind, the

The Way Donna Prinzmetal The way light from the window touches the dust and the dust  hangs there, a promise or a threat. The way a hand hovers above a thigh but doesn’t descend and doesn’t and doesn’t and then does. The way a candle flickers, its bright conversation, sheets tangle like roots in and

Judged by John Brehm 1st Honorable Mention: “Anticipation Spells” by Linda Ferguson 2nd Honorable Mention: “The Pleasures of Whorehouse Meadow” by David Hedges 3rd Honorable Mention: “The Things We Do to Generate Hope” by Michelle Williams

OPA congratulates all the winners below, and thanks themand all the poets who entered for sharing their work. www.wordpress-687676-2268923.cloudwaysapps.com                                       Contest Chair: Stella Jeng Guillory Poet’s Choice — Lynn Otto, Judge 1st Place: “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” by Barbara Blanks, Garland, TX 2nd Place: “Arachnidæa: Line Drawings” by Stephen Pollock, Mebane, NC 3rd Place: “Mind