First Place 2009

Jim Bundschu reads Deborah Parker Wong

Ode to Mountain Fruit
What twists and turns of Darwinian fate
brought humble vine to hallowed grape

Look not to meadows lush and green
nor to reaches deep and wide
Though in these places vines do thrive
from them fleeting wines derive

Listen to the whistling wind
across the mountain tops it winds
Through the vines it rushes wild
a stirring chorus for a hapless child

Perched below the ragged peaks
it is their want to suckle deep
and from earth’s yielding breast
their darkest secrets are not kept

What game did Mother Nature play
with bits of rock and earth and clay
From fruitless soil and little rain
a vine that knows the drinker’s name

- Deborah Parker Wong