Karen Vande Bossche

Congratulations to Karen! She is our 1st runner up in the Los Angeles Poet Society's 4th Annual Summer Poetry Contest with her poem July Musings.

I want to go outside. Seventy degrees,

no wind, my little deck the perfect place

to sit, to write, to slowly become light

marshmallow brown. I should

change to shorts, tank top. However:

I want to deck sit in my nightgown,

a flimsy knee length boat-necked cotton.

Facing the sun I would hike the hem

over my knees. Spreading my legs just so

I could feel the heat on my inner thighs.

I want a tumbler of red table wine

even though it’s nine in the morning.

It, too, would leisurely become warm,

somehow taste more potent, more

exotic, and a little more forbidden.

I want the couples, the housewives,

the noisy groups of bike riding kids

to wonder as they take a second look,

as they whisper to each other,

“Doesn’t she know we can see her?”

I want you to come home unexpectedly;

walk silently through the house;

stop for a moment and watch me.

Then, your lips against my warm neck,

begin your own summer poem.