Souvenir by Jake A. Martinez First Place Poetry Award Somewhere there is a snow globe An acrylic half-dome really It gathers dust, sitting on a coffee table Mottled with ring-stains and dull magazines It’s a souvenir purchased With a picture of Lincoln’s wrinkled face Won from a scratch-lottery Bought at a derelictgas-upon 52nd When shaken The hobos spring up, relocate headquarters And land on the other side of MLK blvd Where their collection of cardboard Scraps, Bic pens, and foil wrappers settle neatly When shaken Painted fishing boats bob in the churning bay That vomits sour brine The tired, gray lungs of Oakland Cough up a flurry of thick phlegm Spewing rain droplets as they wheeze Like the 11:15 BART train Scratching on metal pipes overhead Crocheted with clotted tarmac expressways Leaving dandelions and obscene graffiti Covered in frigid blue shade theMeadow 95
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