SECOND
PRIZE
Pockets
You have a pocket, pockets,
all over, front, back, side, outside, inside, and within
these pockets are perhaps other pockets and within those
still others, an infinite line of pockets, or maybe a circle
that leads back to the original pocket, and you put your
hand in your pocket and maybe you feel something in there
and you realize that what you have is just not enough to
give to someone else and so you’ll stay alone and
your hands will be the only hands in your pockets which
is fine because sometimes there are good things in these
pockets, forgotten things, stale gum, a joint you never
finished smoking, a stamp, lint you were saving, a paper
clip, a vacation brochure, matches, some spare change (though
never in the same pocket, or else it’d jingle against
itself and you’d notice it, broke as you are), and
of course the keys, which you have been looking for, which
made you go through your pockets in the first place, and
you finally find the keys and back your way out of your
pockets, into the open air between your hand and the car
door, you get in and put the key in the ignition, the car
starts but as you back it out of the space it doesn’t
seem like your car, though you drive it anyway towards home,
which when you get there doesn’t really seem like
your home, though the key works in the door and you walk
in with your hands in your pockets, putting the keys in
one of them though you don’t remember which, and maybe
there are some people in your home playing pool or billiards
or something, you don’t think you know them but they
seem to know you, and they kind of smile but mostly look
unhappy as they announce to you, sorry, you just lost the
game you didn’t even know you were playing, please
pay up, empty your pockets.
—Julian Cohen,
AB’91
Cohen, who is vice
president and group strategic planning director at DDB Chicago,
writes screenplays in his free hours. He has previously
published poems in Strong Coffee and Mangrove.
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
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