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NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
Winter 2024
2023 JOHN APPLEWHITE POETRY PRIZE FINALIST BY BILL GRIFFIN
Spent Coreopsis spent, limp rays curling, curdled disk and one lone fly like aster’s dry winged seed perched on delusion that the head still holds some promise: I turn away from everything sere and brown – where else would I turn this sullen afternoon? until she calls me to join her, leaf strewn trail beside Grassy Creek where it sings to itself oblivious, two soft pairs of footfalls among fern and shadow, partridge berry makes its own warm light and ground cedar runs rings around us:
PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL GRIFFIN