Winners, 2006 Empire Asparagus Festival Poetry Contest

Roadside Stand
By Nora Stone
First prize, Youth Poetry
Driving home after school
we’re tired with end-of-the-week relief
and our stepfather pulls over on Herkner Road
where there is a little table
with a coffee can marked “honor system,”
and he buys two bundles of asparagus,
pert and dripping from a dented pie tin,
and he putts four dollars into the can
and it’s just so nice to be driving home then,
with the windows down and May exploding
into green and white trilliums in the woods,
the asparagus in the back next to my sister
and Hollandaise sauce on our minds,
the radio on,
somehow not quite so tired anymore.

Waiting for Asparagus
By Tom Ulrich
First prize, Adult Poetry
I stand over the bed and imagine you arising
Green and slender, uncurling towards me,
Stretching with the pleasant ache of carbon, newly fixed.
It’s been nearly a year since I’ve seen your face
And a long winter since I’ve tasted anything that astonished me,
The way you always seem to, no matter how you’re dressed.
The iron clouds skid by, hiding the sun in their pockets.
In this cold, flat light my fingers are pallid and numb,
Trembling until your emergence proves everything anew.
I blow into my cupped hands,
And wait for you.
Fashion Jingle
By Mary Ann Chapman
First prize, Light Verse
Introduction
Millie Handysnap’s late-breaking sound bite from the Empire, Michigan fashion scene:
“Two words, my dears. ACCESSORIZE ASPARAGUSWISE!
TRES CHIC. SOOOOO NEW!
Purple, green and elegant too.
Wear asparagus every day.
Wear asparagus every way.
Make a hat
And tasteful cravat,
An asparagus bag;
Start now. Don’t lag.
Circle a wrist.
You can’t resist!
And round your neck,
What the heck!
Fringe your shoes
And pockets, too,
Or favorite jeans
By asparagus means.
Ruffle a gown
And dance through town.
Design yourself a tiny teeny
Asparagus bikini.
Asparagus accessorize every day.
Asparagus accessorize every way.
THEN YOU MAY …
Wear your lunch,
Eat your hat,
Nibble your shoes,
Chew your cravat,
Sample your jeans
And munch, munch, munch!
TRES CHIC. SOOOOO NEW!
Purple, green, deeeeelicious too!”
(To be read to the rhythm of Dr. Seuss’s Fox in Sox!)