Our theme for May's contest was "Renewal" and our winner is John C. Mannone with his poem, "Mourning Routine".
Mannone has poems appearing in North Dakota Quarterly, Le Menteur, Blue Fifth Review, Poetry South, Baltimore Review. A Jean Ritchie Fellowship winner in Appalachian literature (2017), he served as celebrity judge for the NFSPS (2018).
His poetry won the Bloodroot award and Impressions of Appalachia Creative Arts Contest (2020). He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and other journals. A physicist, John lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. Read more at jcmannone.wordpress.com and facebook.com/jcmannone.
Mourning Routine
For Lidia
I get the call in the morning
that my sister has passed
to a safer place, but not one
of more love than here.
They always seem to die
just after they dramatically
improve. I went to sleep
last night with a hopeful smile.
I try not to think of her
in the coffin as I drive
six hundred miles to see
what is left of her.
In the parking lot, Death
grabs me by the shoulders, drags
me inside, laughing. I shake
it off and pray in my heart.
I talk, cry with family,
hug. So many I am sorry’s
whispered. Her son takes me
by the arm, each step closer
to her is a growing anguish.
I wish I could have seen her
one more time before she left
just to tell her that I love
the way she smiled and
pushed me when I was three
in a stroller through a park
filled with the sweet breath
of eucalyptus trees in Montevideo
the city of roses where I was born.
A bouquet of red and white roses
hangs over her mahogany casket
where she sleeps with a rosary
wrapped in her hands. I touch
her embalmed fingers, plastic
beads, add my prayers to hers.
A psalm on my lips, I kneel
at the altar where her body is left
as sacrifice to disease. I speak softly
as if she can hear me, a routine
I’ve endured for my mother
and many friends that I have seen
like this. Sometimes, heaviness lifts
for a little while, but for now,
my eyes are flushed with Grief—
that vulture feeding on my dying.
I await renewal in the morning
when Joy might land as a dove
light as feathers.
June's contest theme is "Exploration." Our judge will be Ray Zimmerman, assisted by KB Ballentine and Kelly Hanwright. Full rules and how to submit here.
To learn more about the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild, please visit them online at chattanoogawritersguild.org