The Geist Jackpine Sonnet Contest is is underway and to make things interesting Geist is posting some of the submissions for you to read and comment on. Each poem will be posted anonymously (but with permission from the authors) and comments on the poem will not be considered in the judging. Remember, contest closes July 1st, so get writing!

The Escape

He knew the moment he saw her that his life

Was broken, wrecked, disintegrated, and not

That he even wanted—now—a girl, a wife,

Inamorata, nymph, or anything, but what he got

In one calescent glance would shred and fuel

His fragile quietude into a cartography

Of stalled pursuits and spirals, a frantic duel

With his imagination and her eventual cruelty.

He could turn and go. He could get on his bike

And spin around the corner, pedal, disappear

Before she fully saw that she could strike

A shattering wound on the apparently austere

Composure of his face. Too late. She knew

And smiled a little, swinging just a step

Toward him; then, as he fully understood just who

She was, and what she’d do to him, he schlepped

His bike into oncoming traffic, and was gone.