Meritage Press is delighted to announce the results of the 2009 Meritage Press Holiday Poetry Contest, judged by Aileen Ibardaloza:

First Place: “Butiki” by Michelle A. Penaloza

ABOUT THE WINNING POET: Michelle Peñaloza graduated from Vanderbilt University and is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Oregon. She is a carnivore and a sometimes omnivore. Her work has been published in Kartika Review.

Congratulations to Michelle for writing the following fabulous poem:

Butiki

I cannot sleep.
My only companions:
creek of acacia beams,
moon silence, colloquy
of gecko feet.

Legs and tails make letters,
then words
along the walls,
across the ceiling
constellations of sounds

long-forgotten—
puso            usok
           aral            mahal
         —glow above mosquito net,
           a sky of wiry scrawl.

Once, Lolo told me
fallen lizards were stars
of forgotten words, grew tails;
light gave way to skin
and limbs—nimble, crawling
—Lolo told me.

Look, he said, between
nets of tilapia,
under your Lola’s kalán,
inside the husk of bigas.
Look, stars, within
kalamansi halves, their clean tart.

The moon watches me call
butiki, butiki—
flit your cold-blooded feet,
walk fast—
melt across my skin;
crawl into my careless mouth.

*****
*****

FIRST PLACE WINNERS of the MERITAGE PRESS HOLIDAY POETRY CONTESTS:

2009: Michelle A. Penaloza (Judge: Aileen Ibardaloza)
2008: Rodrigo V. Dela Pena Jr. (Judge: Bino A. Realuyo)
2007: Naya S. Valdellon & Marcel L. MiIliam (Judge: Eric Gamalinda)
2006: Joel M. Toledo (Judge: Michelle Bautista)
2005: Arkaye Velasquez Kierulf (Judge: Jean Vengua)
2004: Joel H. Vega (Judge: Sarah Gambito)
2003: Luisa A. Igloria (Judge: Patrick Rosal)
2002: Naya S. Valdellon & Michella Rivera-Gravage (Judge: Oliver de la Paz)
2001: Carlomar Arcangel Daoana (Judge: Nick Carbo)