1st place winner

Annual Contention

by Jan Wood

 
in the boreal zone
 spring waters atone for winter wounds
 binding them
             in moss and fern sending
 a stream of trapped sap
 pulsing in the veins of birch
             poplar-leaf laundry is hung
 out on branch lines
             tamarack spines needle the air
 threadbare meadows return
 from frozen paralysis
             swaying willow skirts
 and wind flirts teasing stubborn snow
 ridges on the moist dirt
             hillsides in lush lime coats
 wear dandelion boutonnieres
             and home-sown greenery appears
 in back yard plots
                         and pots on decks
 nothing reflects the difference
             between the natural leafing
 and the manipulated ones
             both stimulate
             and rejuvenate
             and quell a perspective
 of collective winter pessimism
             but it takes a bit of grit
 and resilience
 to grow anything deliberately
             on the brink of taiga possession
 nothing rivals forest aggression
             by mid-summer there will be
 a degree of disappointment
             in the utterly insignificant greens
 of carrots and beans planted
 near spruce stands that 
 confront the sky
 perfumed in dew-mist
 swaying a summer lullaby