Marcia Hurlow
Johnson County Library is pleased to announce that Marcia Hurlow has won our poetry writing contest on the theme of The Unknown with her piece "Lost on Callisto."
Marcia L. Hurlow is the author of one full-length poetry collection, Anomie (winner of the Edges prize, WordTech Press) and five chapbooks. Her individual poems have appeared in Poetry, Chicago Review, Poetry Northwest, Nimrod, Poetry East, Main Street Rag, Poetry South, River Styx and The Beloit Journal, among others. She is a two-time winner of the Al Smith Fellowship for Poetry, and co-editor of Kansas City Voices.
LOST ON CALLISTO
for my husband____
Let’s say I decide to fly to the moon.
You’re sure I’m headed to buy some fruit,
I’ll be back home by the end of the week.
But what if I overshoot? I’m terrible
with directions. Maybe I’ll land on one
of Jupiter’s moons instead. How would you
find me? Don’t shake your head, sigh, “She’ll
figure it out.” You would howl to Venus
for me. Say I telegraph that I’m cold
and everything is blue except the small
creatures turning backflips, tossing circles
of ice around my helmet like a game.
Would you know where to fly your spaceship
to return me to our home? I’m so far
from the grocery with the best produce.
Eight more groceries on this suburban
moon, its huge planet a food desert.
I circle again, ice up to my eyes.