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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y R E V I E W
Fall 2023
2023 JAMES APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE SEMIFINALIST BY ROXANNE HENDERSON
Bent Fork I can pick the bones out of your trash can eat your scraps with my bent fork I am brave enough to eat your garbage with a bent fork because courage is part rage and rage is pure energy – you are brave too, brave enough to own the world - I have no bed but I can sleep on the steel bench at the dog park I can admire the leaping sheep dog you paid more to buy than the car I would have if I had one – please listen to the dog – his bark is a hammer carried by the wind – I can do any job you will let me but there is no letting – gates are locked you are the prince – you ride your horse in a shirt of iron – your bags of money locked in the cellar like slaves who work for you so you can have no job – so let your job be to stop pushing me into the river under the bus over the cliff I can bend the fork, can straighten the fork but I can’t be the fertilizer that greens your grass, can’t be the pilings holding up your water-view porch – let your job be
ROXANNE HENDERSON is a twelfth-generation North Carolinian who grew up all over the world as a military brat. She is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, where she received two poetry prizes as an undergraduate and graduated with honors in creative writing. Since then, she has had a career as a communications professional and fundraiser, particularly in the field of global health and women’s health and reproductive rights, with long stints as a senior staff member at two North Carolinabased international NGOs. She has published in such literary magazines as the Carolina Quarterly, Cellar Door, 3rd Wednesday, and Quartet.