Special thanks to all participants. We invite you to enter our next art contest.

Winner – Trista Eazell

“Easy”

You crept in,
kind of how light
seeps in through the
crack in a curtain-

The darkness in
my mind, can’t deny
there’s a presence here
coming slowly and then all at once-

You make it seem so easy
the waking up and letting
the light reveal me but it’s not-

Who am I really
but a lost soldier
who can’t remember my name
or the country this gun’s defending-

Then, there’s you
you have flowers in your hair
and you remind me of a place
I used to call home-

You make it seem so easy
to follow you
and trust I won’t fall but it’s not-

I’ve become so
familiar with grasping
and never holding
but you grabbed my hand-

It’s strange
how I never knew
ten fingers
could be a puzzle completed-

Maybe it isn’t easy
to believe that you could be
the spell that breaks the thaw
but it is.

Runner-up:

“When You Aren’t the Man She Fell in Love With”
Untitled Author

It’s a realization that screams in you
fathom deep, from the small part
of him that won’t die.
You, imposter, must’ve started small
and grew fast. A thatch of fungus
in his throat that crept further
with every “I love you.” A chattering crack
on his heart, yawning wider
every time he saw her – wider
when she fell asleep on his chest,
Until collapse, until take-over,

There will never be a funeral for those we do not know are dead.

You have his hands, his teeth, the sleepy
eyes she cannot help but wander.
But you are not him. You do not use his hands
to hold hers. You have sharpened his teeth
on her frame. She does not see him in your eyes,
Just predator, and she finally names you.
He was a house built for her,
you are termites in the floorboards.
You are the monster she will escape from.
She will leave,
carrying this ghost story for the rest of her life.