Hi guys! I thought I’d share one of my poems with you today. This fun little free verse piece has been on my mind lately thanks to the crazy winter storms we’ve had here in North Texas. We were iced in for a solid 4-5 days – highways closed and everything! For those of you who aren’t from ‘round these parts, Denton, Henrietta, and Bowie are all cities/towns in Texas. 😉
Back in 2010 this poem received an honorable mention in the National Federation of State Poetry Societies annual awards, and then in 2012 it won first place in the Poetry Society of Texas annual awards. It was first published in PST’s 2013 prize anthology A Book of the Year, and I’m reprinting it here now. Enjoy!
The road from Denton to Henrietta
is barren and pristine;
the yellow grass
is close-cropped and
graying around the temples.
For miles on end
it’s a consistently monotonous
picture.
Suddenly – around Bowie –
snow everywhere,
like the time in fourth grade
I colored an immaculate
picture,
detailed with hours of patience,
and then decided to make it
“look cold.” With unexpected
relish, I grabbed for the
untouched white crayon (still sharp)
and colored over my page
from corner to corner,
only to find
that I liked it better
hot.
© Annie Neugebauer
All rights reserved.
