**2nd place poetry**
why
is It
that
what ought to be
and what must be are 00 often contrary? as if love,
haying played the role of fairy godmother
one too many times rips off her costume five minutes before curtain,
ducks out the splintered back door^
and disappears Into the blue-black Infamy beyond,
leaving me standing alone In the reticent silence of the wings
waiting for my cue to venture out
onto the cold, hard pine of the stage and, amid the thunder of a hollow, austere auditorium
explain what happened to the audience
of you
--Jennifer Peater
