1st Place – Flash 405, February 2019: “Happily Ever After”
Poetry
The passion of a
deep canyon and the
river that kissed it.
Judge’s Comments:
This short poem captures something profound and unexpected about love, and its power largely lies in its deceptive simplicity. The title which winkingly nods to the Greek word for love, while also hinting at love’s destructive all-consuming power immediately caught my eye, and the content delivered on the promise held there. This poem could be about something as straightforward as the relationships we see in nature, such as those between a river and a canyon—but it is also more deeply about the ebb and flow of the love, it’s all-consuming power, and the astonishing revelation that erosion, being worn down in a symbiotic flow with your partner, can actually be a reflection of a healthy happy ending. The river creates the canyon, rather than eroding it, and it’s an apt metaphor for finding yourself within another. This poem is clever and innovative and an utterly unexpected take on the theme.
Brooke Seipel is a journalist and budding poet living in Los Angeles. Her non-fiction work has been featured in The New Republic, The Hill, and The OC Register, and her fiction has been featured on the Of Gods and Ghosts podcast. Oh and also on her mom’s fridge.