Because I Am Lonely and You Will Not Know My Pain - 3rd Place
Amanda Newell
I am pausing you at six seconds,
just after you turn
from the hood of the old
blue Mercury to look back
at the camera, at me,
though I am not there (not yet),
not the one recording
how the wind, as you adjust
the ignition coil, will whip
across your lips the loose
strands of your hair,
or how, beneath your fingers,
the Ironhorse will fire again,
so loudly that everything—
even the camera—will shake
with the force of three thousand horses.