Poetic Justice PRINT-FRIENDLY VERSION

THIRD PRIZE
Little Red Schoolhouse

My father took me
painting one time.
We drove uphill
to the Little Red Schoolhouse.

The Schoolhouse then
was a Nature Center,
a place so dull
you rushed outside.

Off to the left
was the Nature Trail—
more de la même
in my opinion.

Off to the right
was the view downhill—
Nature naked—
It wasn’t pretty.

I painted the trees
one leaf at a time;
Dad painted the forest
with one green line.

—W. H. Stevens, AM’76

Stevens lives in Crystal Lake, Illinois, and is an assistant public defender in the Cook County Public Defender’s office. His poems have appeared in Alewife, Bogg, The Lillliput Review, and The Rambunctious Review.

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Select a poem:

First Prize - Potter's Song

Second Prize - Pockets

Third Prize - Little Red Schoolhouse

Honorable Mention - Lowdown Lovesick Blues

Honorable Mention - Unavoidably Detained