2026 Winter Poetry Contest: First Place
Photo by Sandy Millar on Unsplash Up Katy L. Did you know, my love, in the attic high, The queen looks out beneath the sky O’er a kingdom vast and green With asphalt stripes–a magazine At every step, and did you know She see the wind who’s come to blow The newsie’s cap off from his head The old orange cat back to his bed. Besides, my dear, in the attic high, A pirate sails with just one eye. A velvet patch where his other was A peg leg and a map because His dying father gave it him (after he taught him how to swim) So he could find the hidden gold That all your storybooks have told He holds on tight so’s not to slip From the crow’s nest of his bonny ship. That ship is in the attic, darling, Up there’s too a tiger snarling And a hunter, stooping low. One of them has got to go Or we’ll go up on day and see A sight that makes us both to flee: Orange and black fur five feet thick The hunter killed him by some trick And left the mess upon the floor For me to clean–and what a ch...
