Poetry: "heartburn"

heartburn

Sophie Benhke, Class of 2026

never really goes away.

she just sits on corroded arteries

kicking candy coated ribs

fingers lazily shuffling

a patchwork deck

she deals for one

sharpening the spades

worn pink around the edges

the clubs all ended up in her lungs

the diamonds cutting up her stomach

in a familiar sort

of way the blood gets stiffer

and instead of folding

she makes a bet she knows

she’ll lose

Judge's Notes:

“Heartburn, whether it’s gastric reflux, a bleeding heart or ulcers, or the first signs of a heart attack, is personified as a woman who seems to be playing a game of solitaire and wreaking havoc on a human body. The poet carefully employs the language of cards and card games to describe a painful episode and leaves enough mystery for readers to make their own imaginative leaps.”