autumn arrives
in a whirl of leaves
this body
withering, too, despite
my best intentions
2nd Honourable Mention
Judge's comments:
In this poem, autumn is referring to the autumn of our lives. There's nothing we can do to stop the aging process. There's no fountain of youth, so no matter what we do, we are dying or "withering," just as fall withers into winter. The phrase "whirl of leaves" alludes to the whirlwind that life is. It seems like we're a child and then before we know it, we're over the hill. Time passes more quickly than we want, especially as we get older and feel the end closing in. We can use masks, retinol cream, or exercise and eat the right foods, but inevitably, there's nothing we can do to stop what's going to happen. The use of commas in line 4 further emphasizes the narrator's attempt to slow down this process, by literally slowing the poem down. There's also an acceptance to it too in line 5, with a bit of humor to boot.
—Susan Burch
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