Amy Lowell Prize Honorable Mention, selected by Sarah Audsley
Pushcart Prize winner Laura Rodley‘s latest books are Turn Left at Normal by Big Table Press, Counter Point by Prolific Press, and Ribbons and Moths: Poems for Children by Kelsay Books, which won Children’s Nonfiction award at the 2024 International Book Awards. It has a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PClY8G6HQwk.
A Matter of Physics Through her tiny hand held in mine surged the tremor to cross, intensely, that the ton weight of thirty-mile- an-hour cars, drivers texting on cellphones would wait, that she could walk through their metal as a spirit untouched, that we would both be transported safely, quickly, much more quickly than waiting for the walk signal, as we were, and I believed her implicitly, her belief surged through me, her impatience, so much so I had to consciously press my feet to the pavement, bend down to cup her elbow as well as her hand, anything to stay grounded, keep her safe, my body to the side of the stopped cars in case the driver spaced out, pressed the gas as finally we crossed the road in Inman Square, light years, on the way to the park where she threw her body onto the upright metal playground equipment making it swirl non-stop.