Ekphrastic Writing Winners
First Prize: Griselda Castillo
Second Prize: Michael Hatcher
Third Prize: Layne Calabro
Honorable Mention: Leslie Soule
-Juried by Mairead Case-
Griselda Castillo:
how is a cypress like a peace officer?
neighborhood trap
turns into neighborhood traps
when the cops can’t tell
the goodies from the baddies
the world’s turned to ammunition
caught the new american condition
the transition is a warning to us all
WARNING: flashing lights
are closer than they appear
authentic violence now comes
as silence
in this life cannibals and children
link up online
let me tell you about
the sick and the sad
wrists cuffed
infected lungs
our kindred can’t breathe anymore
across america
zen gardens fill up with baddies
their dark bodies strangled
by a cypress tree
i ask you simply
how is a cypress like a peace officer?
they both have knees that will
fuck you up
neighborhood trap
turned neighborhood traps
a traffic stop is a coffin
with my face on it
the TV shows pandemic or pandemonium
suggests a jab in the arm
can save the day
it’s been over a year
we’ve been beading the chain
with a pellet of suggested drug use
dots of daily walks
stone offerings to the dead
killed by cops
confusing the goodies and the baddies
Michael Hatcher
Open Mouth for Baddies
Most midnights are born black and without music,
Until lips and teeth make them whole,
Until words give them life.
So go to work.
Let the baddest women
Empty out the monastery
Wearing whatever they want.
Bedazzle the bustier
Turn the volume loud
Enough to make all make up run.
Bring them out banging!
Be them all bad. Be them, the entire background.
Be… smoke and mirrors. Be Special effects.
Sound is the spell caster’s briefcase
go to work.
Hair wherever they want it to be
Hips swinging like a pendulum
The night is not done
Until every patron goes to the hospital
At least once.
That’s what happens when salacious meets satisfaction
You have no choice but tp, bring them out!
Before the city is overrun
Before The holy Sun makes hordes of shadows
And covers them in black and red background.
Covers them in sand and emeralds,
And Here we go. A table full of bloody body parts
And a table full of women using the severed hands of men
To put themselves back together
all baddies,
All, breathing space and oxygen
Until the drums come back.
Until heartbeats are replaced by strobe lights,
And it takes a miracle to keep the blood flowing.
But the badies just keep dancing.
There’s nothing new or forgiving about this place
it’s a lectern for the unsettling,
Everyone that watches is going to be sick and turned on,
At the same time
That’s the way they measure it.
If she’s really a badie there will be no drugs and no life left
If she’s a badie that body will be dancing in the same place tomorrow
Whether her eyes work or not.
Shadows are born that way,
the blood is in the music
It’s the exit stage right,
And reincarnate center stage,
It’s all the spirts in the room with their Hands up.
Chained to the wall if need be,
It’s a movie
Where everyone walks out
But not the same way they walked in,
It’s a take your jaw and leave your teeth
Kind of event.
Under no circumstances
Should there be any hesitation
When the floor caves in and the trap door opens,
Just keep looking.
She’s a badie and
The turn is coming.
Layne Calabro
Beauty’s Path
Searching for home
In tongue-leaked lips,
Regal Beauty roams in
thigh-high silk and
rebounding brown skin
Relegated by signatures
an orifice of pleasure,
she clings to the
cover page. A definitive
denim-bleached success
still grasping
among vampires
to reclaim esteem
Angry Ancestral
drops
build
drops
that eventually
flood a knife’s edge
ready to dissect nature’s
inconvenience
Blood smears
soul and skin-split
Lights flicker and shadows open her eyes
unleashing the impressions of her oppression.
Rage finds a home and
she finds the freedom –
that only death can bring.
Leslie Soule
Baddie Flair
baddie baddie baddie, flair
eyeliner lipstick eyeshield jewelwear
90s MTV denim moves
red light flashfilm horrovibe grooves
hypnotic carnival demonic twerk
it’s madness blood sex trance work
flashes of fangs in dark despair
green ribbons flailing pigtail hair
Puppet controlled by the Illumi-naughty
Cashcam held steady instafilm hottie
Eye-candy, drug-candy, entertainment player
Blood-covered, nightmare-making innocence slayer
Due to the Pandemic and other unforeseen circumstances the originally scheduled 2021 Lit Hop production of The Dharma Beauty Pageant is re-imagined into website-staged trailer docu-introduction of cast members. Stay Tuned for the full staged version in 2023.
