Enid Dame Memorial Poetry Prize, 2017

my family’s family dinners sit at tables

somewhere where the family watches where

the eating sits and someone outside watches

where the table settings set the setting seen

and tables meet and here:

      is a scene of a family eating dinner.

 

the lights rise right to up the lighted table 

where a family sitting or the sun as setting sets 

the scene of dated dates in here, where 

the family meets the met to time to show 

a centered center eating while the watchers 

eat the dinner sitting set the seat to time.

 

      and here:

                           a scene of a family eating dinner

 

while my family sits in rows and makes the 

watch of watching dinner, and the sitting of the

setting sets the time and place for eating, here still 

the still is settling down and watching while they dine.