2013
POETRY OPEN
Third Place
$50 Award
Swagger (God hollas at Mary)
Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers
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Girl, I want you
to be my baby momma.
Look at you…
lookin’ so right, lookin’ so tight
with that veil, all blue and white,
it go on all day, all night. Girl,
you righteous.
Lookin’ so virginal, diversional,
you got me twisted, thinkin’ thoughts
I ain’t never thought before.
On the seventh day, I’m restless,
wonderin’ if I should bless this.
You make me wanna take it
to another level.
Sent my wingman, don’t care about your Joe.
You got needs, you real, I know.
But you ’n me…
when I lay you down, I’ll fill your cup,
pour my sweet waters on your ground.
Be my queen of heaven, my shortie, my boo;
my rod and staff will comfort you.
What I’m sayin’ is,
don’t say maybe. Let’s get
incarnate, baby.
Letitia Montgomery-Rodgers is a native of Pennsylvania who lives in Buckingham Court House, Virginia. She was a Rita Dove Poetry Award semi-finalist in the Salem College 2007 International Literary Awards; the same year, she was a semi-finalist in the Summer Literary Seminars-Russia International Poetry Contest. She received her MFA in Creative Writing and her MA in Applied Linguistics from Old Dominion University and a BA in English from Penn State. After six years of teaching and administrating, she has returned to poetry, her first love, and now writes full-time.
March 2013