Lea Graham
2021 Michelle Boisseau Poetry Prize Winning Poem
In A Polish Dream
I am sleeping & driving
from the back seat
through night & snow.
Waking, still in the dream,
I realize & reach for the wheel.
Something isn’t right about my life.
I am excited
driving this dark away
from the past into
other pasts.
Years later & one morning,
our Polish neighbors across the way
have given us pork & bread
spread with lard for breakfast.
The night before, you sang
“Happy Birthday” with a woman
named Beata, drank vodka
& wine in a rectangle of light,
raised our glasses
with these unknown,
familiar people
here on the Adriatic coast,
near Dante’s grave.
Lea Graham is the author of two poetry collections, From the Hotel Vernon (Salmon Press, 2019) and Hough & Helix & Where & Here & You, You, You (No Tell Books, 2011); a fine press book, Murmurations (Hot Tomato Press, 2020), and three chapbooks, Spell to Spell (above/ground Press, 2018), This End of the World: Notes to Robert Kroetsch (Apt. 9 Press, 2016) and Calendar Girls (above/ground Press, 2006). She is the editor of the anthology of critical essays: From the Word to the Place: The Work of Michael Anania (MadHat Press, 2022). She is an associate professor of English at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY, and a native of Northwest Arkansas.
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