My Aunt died over the weekend. She was a poet, in addition to many other things. I wanted to honor her, and share her skill with others.

I give you all the 2nd Place Winner in the 1979 New World’s Poetry contest, written by none other than Beverly Giambrese:

Some Fantasies are Lived
By Beverly Giambrese

I took a midnite boat to Corsica
where the Mediterranean
below cliffs of pink chateaus
carried the whore queen Cleopatra
safely to anchor her naked breasts
upon the shores of Caesar

Five miles out of town
where the people’s promenade
stretches toward Atlantis
I backpacked to a cove
where the fishermen
were unloading octopus and starfish
they told me strange stories
of slave traders from Afghanistan
whose teeth flash switchblades
at white women from America

The empty bottle of wine
rose in my cheeks
as I waited from my sleeping bag
to be sold