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2023 Nathalie F. Anderson Prize

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David as Galatea

by Finn Verdonk

 

shoulders and his hips angle soft against eachother like press of lips and pull of muscle man. born from discarded marble. carved. warm. veins and hands is this love is it? shame? divine inspiration intervention innervation — a chisel a religion made of thoughts the curls his hair a lone the tilt his chin the fall his feet the how to say i love you they say how i should love you which is to not love you at all. and yet i love you the way time loves wind loves mountain loves in dust hope of building you forever slab become human. falls away and behind it is you. like a glacier moving towards the ocean gravel and ice and frigid water and — so that you may someday fill with blood I sculpt you a heart so that you may someday fill with air I sculpt you lungs not so that we may someday be in love I sculpt you a brain and a body and I pray that you do know not that your massive hands could hold me. but or is it because you want to because i made them so if i told you i loved you would it really be you?back to University & College Poetry Prizes

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