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2nd Poetry Challenge Winner #1

March 8, 2020

Challenge Words:
Doll, Nails, Edge, Separation, Acceptable, Efficiency, Circle, Press

Florina Nastase is an Assistant Professor at 'Alexandru Ioan Cuza' University in Yassi, Romania. She holds a Ph.D. in American poetry and spends too much time writing fan fiction online under various guises. She has been published in Gasher Journal and High Shelf Press and hopes to publish more in the future.

LouiseMoisesPhoto_edited.jpg

Florina Nastase

Yassi, Romania

Winning Entry

Hatchling

the dinosaur took me in his arms
on the car hood, like it was acceptable,
even though the law said there should be
a circle between us. the triceratops pointed
at the sky where a bird knocked
into another bird: we should kiss but your mouth
is the hunter’s mouth is the edge of a soft thing. he let me
rest my head on his leathery cheek.
my manager told me I’d never work in a park again,
I didn’t understand efficiency:
could I press play and incinerate bones?
did I not, as he preached, have a god inside me
that would hate illegal immigrants? they
showed us on a doll once,
nails pinned in the plushy, perishable limbs,
to prove there’s not enough space
for two beasts. hatchling, I hope you stay inside,
separation would be cruel. I try not to think
about my birth and his.

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