Congratulations to the winner of the Abbie Copps Poetry Reading contest, Bray Wright!
Bray said, ““Like a lot of writers, I can be a bit self-deprecating at times, so finding out that so many people liked my poem made me feel really good.”
For winning first place, Bray received $200. The runner ups, Ethan Valente and Keeley Angsten, both won $100.
Special guest Masaki Takahashi, the current Lansing Poet Laureate, helped judge the competition. In addition to the contest, Masaki performed as a part of the event.
Read Bray’s winning poem below.
“Duck” by Bray Wright
The job of a pinecone,
a teacher once told her,
is to protect the seeds.
They close in the cold
and open in the warm,
ensuring the next generation,
She wishes she were a pinecone.
At the dinner table,
her parents sit,
biting their tongues,
biding their time.
Someone sips. Metal clinks.
The tension simmers,
Molten under a layer of ice.
Like Uncle’s wooden ducks,
she’s stuck floating on the surface.
Passive. Unviolent. Unable to
stop the coming slaughter.
A vinyl plays in the corner.
Put on to cover the silence,
it only makes it louder.
Her mother opens her mouth.
At once, her blood freezes,
then shatters into pieces.
The shards shred her lungs and
prick her eyes. The shouting starts.
She ducks under, praying bullet and lava
both miss her wooden soul.
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