Issue 2
Contest Winners

Jean Tupper
Here:after

After Sophie’s wake I just want
to curl up in my own bed,

want to lie in this cool darkness
and listen to silence;

but it is broken
by a fly buzzing overhead

and he—poor fellow— is trapped
with me on this side of the skylight:

no need to go after the fly swatter
since none of his brash whizzings

can buy freedom with the window sealed;
no more than her circumlocutions

could outrace the cancer cells. I think of her
wearing that Oh—so Sophie! Perfect! crimson dress

splayed with black chrysanthemums—the one
found with tags still on in her closet.