Curernt’s annual summer poetry and fiction contest grows each year, and has become one of the events our-staff is most excited for. Washtenaw County has untapped great writers, eager to be published. Deciding this year’s winners was a challenge. In 2013, we updated the contest, asking for [Twitter poems restricted to 140 characters] and [Flash Fiction, which is limited to only three sentences]. Aspiring writers had to be fast and furious with their words. Enjoy.
TWITTER POETRY
Winner- Untitled
Frisbees glide between fireflies,
lighting the yard
for summer snapshots.
Lightening bugs lead constellations,
spreading immortality
across the sky.
Robin Goldberg
Runner-up Untitled
I am living.
I am dying.
One of these statements
is false.
Seven-word Memoir
Found: Notebook,
last page torn out.
Realism
We can’t both be
solipsists.
Kaitlin Williams
Runner-up Let's Do the Time Warp Again
Let's do the time warp again!
brad and janet knock
barack and michelle answer
welcome them inside
Jacob Jabkiewicz
FLASH FICTION
Winner: A Daredevil Realizes
Captain Jungling brought his rocket-powered space suit to the edge of the black hole's event horizon. Shifting his mass forward even one micron would send the cosmic daredevil inexorably downward to a singularity of doom. As atom after atom of himself began departing, he thought how supremely unfortunate it was to become aroused during stunts. Jake Christensen
Runner-up: untitled
It was a beautiful summer sunrise in the mountains. An instructor and student were preparing to paraglide by running off the mountainside into clear blue sky. After they landed, both felt peace as they went on about their days, sharing it with everyone’s eyes they met. Heather Mooney
Runner-up: untitled
It was hard enough getting by in this world but when that awful neighbor moved in for many years he felt so deeply angry at this constant source of bother and resentment until when his old age came and he wondered at the end, what was the point of all that aversion? In his next life he again met the neighbor but now she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and he wooed and cajoled her into loving him but soon he found himself totally obsessed with keeping her and he wondered at the end, what was the point of all that attraction? In the next life the same one he had hated who had became an obsession was this time born as his child as he loved unconditionally his anger melted and his obsession subsided until he only wanted this person to be happy and free of suffering and this time when death approached, there was so much less to regret. Edward Howlett
