The Literary Committee of the Arts Consortium of Carver County (ACCC) would like to thank all those who participated in our 48 Hr Writing Contest! We had many fantastic entrants and it caused many heated debates over who our top picks would be, though we have finally narrowed down our top picks to two entrants in the poetry portion of the contest.

Poetry Winners

“Ghost Flower” by Kara Thom

Light slices through damp earth, shameless

this grace like a knife—no syringe, pulling life

from the feeders of trees, parasite of a parasite,

numbing my heart, my hands, my lip.

Stick, nor stone, no word penetrate

with a sip of the bruisy tincture. But the bloom,

absent of chlorophyll, clusters around temples;

gray hair on the forest floor. This candle douter,

with the same power—to extinguish fire.

I, too, am most potent when I hang my head

low in translucent meditation. Just be;