Love Poetry Contest 2025 WINNERS

FIRST PLACE: Angie Minkin, Letter to Leslie
 

Letter to Leslie

I didn’t expect to find you here, dear heart,
a great egret night-fishing in the Gulf of Mexico,

the waters swirling aquamarine and azure, black
now in the deep dark. Look at you, ignoring me

as you forage, stabbing shrimp or skink, clams or
cockles from this shallow sea, your spare white feathers

reflecting Polaris as you stalk on stilt legs—
The night sky. Jupiter. Mars. You. You were always

so damn elegant. I can hardly breathe, waiting
for you to turn that calm eye on me.

Crushed shells beneath my bare feet.
I walk behind you, wrenched, willing

to be stabbed. I want to hear you call
my name before you fly to your nest in the mangrove

forest by the lagoon, above red mud, decayed
sea creatures and plankton. There are no other birds

that I can see or hear, no sharp gull whistles, no
cormorant cries, no pelicans diving. Are you lonely

out here in the dark, on the cusp of a new year?
Do you care about years anymore?

Let me be your gnarled gray tree rooted in sand,
waiting. Look at me, Les. Will you come again?

SECOND PLACE: David Hakim, YOU ASKED

THIRD PLACE: Luisa Giulianetti, Thirty-Five

Thirty-five

Long after we’re gone, the redwoods will continue their watch.
I never imagined running a marathon through ancient Giants
or hiking the Sandias, witnessing the wildflowers bloom

at Anza Borrego. But we did. In Big Sur, we traced creeks
to crystal waterfalls. A soundscape of birds and breath,
the Pacific crashing cliffs. The Vanagon’s last hurrah stranded us

in Sweet Home, begging coffee at a saloon-cum-diner.
The locals’ curious guessing game added to our collective lore.
Maybe that’s how love swells. Bundled against icy mornings

fingers laced, walking the Seine. Over coffee and puzzles.
Unaccountable beauty in the ordinary. Cats training us
to do their bidding. We’ve loved each other years enough

for our children to become adults, our fathers to pass,
for a second story. For the doves to nest on our porch—
again and again and again.