2007 Poetry Contest Honorable Mention
(nervous), happily
she was (young) driving safely home
after work and realized (strange)
that she was going (instead of East)
West, and slowed the car into a
parking (unused)-lot to turn around.
Finding (somehow) herself on the
wrong (the passenger) side of
the car and starting to move back
she, hearing mother’s voice,
(or God’s) say,
don’t move over just run home now!
But how? she thought and switched (because
it made sense) seats; then (struggling with the safety-
belt) she heard a vulture-shaped man (with a
mullet and smile) let himself in, and she,
opening her mouth to scream (nothing),
instead woke up,
frozen knuckles gripping sheets.
(a week later) she was innocently
and (nervous), happily in your car
blushing, laughing, (batting eyes)
when you (instead of East), heading
West, stopped; and (turning
off the lights) said, come here
into my arms, on the driver’s side.
you meant well, but she
(frozen knuckles gripping door) said,
no. (and please take me home.)
Karen McKnight will begin teaching English at Independence High School in Provo, Utah, this fall. Qualitative sociology is what saves her from summer insomnia. She interviews immigrants by day and dreams of progressive legislative reform by night. She currently belongs to Utah County Immigration Project (UCIP), a research team associated with BYU’s Department of Sociology. She refuses to follow recipes when she cooks.
