A hundred miles from swells and tides,
planks flotsam a building site.
Trees practise for spring with first buds,
though snow survives in dumper truck ruts.
Shadows of girders lattice the light.
The beaked pick at dark tufts.

At twenty we snogged in a low-lit squat bar,
cracked glass guitars and dirge vocals a serenade,
one-mark pilsner our aphrodisiac.
We came back for the next decade.

This year you flew to a contract with change,
to a shift no longer in sync with mine.

This contest is run by Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. It is for unpublished poems in English language (or poems translated into English) on the theme of “Encountering”.

If you are submitting a translation, please make sure you have the permission from the original author.

Rules:
-Each poet can submit up to two poems (no more than 60 lines long each).
-Poems must be previously unpublished.
-Entry is free.

Closing date:
15 January 2012

Prizes:
-First: £50, Second: £30,