The Audubon Prize:
Ann Herlong Bodman "If we Really Cared"
Honorable Mentions:
None
If we really cared
about the monarch,
we could begin
with embryos
traveling on the wind
dodging cars,
yellow school busses
and the new gas station
on the corner—
milkweed embryos cradled
in flossy tidbits of filament—seed
wrapped in fluffy white fiber
soaring across parking lots,
bridges, shopping malls,
airport runways
and sport stadiums large
as cities themselves—
milkweed seed searching
for a roadside habitat,
asclepepeas tuberssa
seeking soil, blessed soil,
fertile or not, any soil will do
in a world of concrete.
Rivers and rivers of concrete.
We can’t say we didn’t
know. We can’t say we didn’t
care. We don’t think about it
like it’s worth a poem.
Rivers and rivers of concrete.
Judge’s Comment:
The winner of The Audubon Prize is "If we really cared", for its particularity in diction and the way its language draws attention to the monarch butterfly and the world we build around it, "We can't say we didn't / know"