Mary E. Dissette, Children playing on swing, Jemez Pueblo School, New Mexico, 1915?, courtesy of the Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), negative number 001039.

New Mexico History Museum (Santa Fe, NM)

Adult Category Winner

"Awakening" by Tammy Iralu

You meet her gaze just before liftoff.

She is poised between heaven and earth.

A smile, a momentary glance—you lock eyes.

Then she will dip and dive, like a swallow.

 

When she pushes off, a song takes you

by surprise. The creaky pulse of the swing

is mirrored by the whistle of cliff swallows

nesting in nearby red sandstone cliffs.

 

Sun bakes brick walls—morning recess.

The playground is backlit.

Sap-spent, lightning-bent, you collapse

your camera, accordion-style.

 

As for me—though dull branches and bulbs

rest dormant now—I'm pinning my hopes

on springtime blossoms emerging

 

not only from budding branches,

but uprising from the ground we tread,

springing from the fertile earth,

 

gold cinquefoil and blazing star, 

crowning the lot where children, 

barefooted, dance and swing.

 

Adult Category Honorable Mention

"Holding On" by Thelma Giomi

I watch my daughters.

Playing on grandfather's swing.

My little one

Holds tight to the ropes, 

While her sister pulls the swing back

Then, lets it go.

I hear little one laughing

"Flying," she shouts.

And I remember, 

Lifting up toward the sky

Releasing earthbound me

For a moment.

Holding on and letting go, 

Safe and free on grandfather's swing.

As I watch this generations-old play

I am thinking, 

Holding on and letting go

The forever question 

Of my Ancient Jemez culture.

"Holding on and letting go."

I whisper, 

And then ask simply, "How?"