Creative Juicing Continues

Welcome to the second installment of Creative Juicing, sinkhole’s creative contest blog. As a reminder, last month’s prompt asked readers to create a poem using the words “chimney,” “fetishize,” “Cheeto-dusted,” and “palanquin.” We received responses that probed the way we view society, shone a light on our deepest human experiences of love and loss, and played with familiar tropes and characters (like Santa Claus!) in fresh, innovative ways. We'd like to give a special shoutout to Eli Peirce's powerful submission, which was a close runner-up. In the end, however, the sharply-honed work of Judith Roney won the day. See the winning piece below, and don’t forget to scroll down for this month’s new prompt [which promises to set your mind afire and inspire brilliant (and perhaps thrilling) masterpieces for sinkhole to publish]. Enjoy!

Winning Poem: “Man-Child” by Judith Roney

Honey-boy, I’ve seen the peach-orange naked body
in the painting passed around online.

 Someone beat up the artist who won’t sell the painting.
Like you, she wishes she’d been born a man.

 I like how she posed you leaning on your right knee,
your mouth like a cold chimney,

 and the little sex puckered and pink—
a mini-dome missing the White House.

 The belly is bloated, the hair Cheeto-dusted,
and I can’t help notice the hipster-weave

 wrist band strapped to thickening wrists
while no wedding band’s on your Vienna Beef Pup

 finger. I could almost fetishize the sagging breasts
of your chest and the keratosis pilaris

 (chicken skin) of your jowls and neck. Truth is,
I’m suddenly starved for a 12-piece chicken dinner

 served on a trumped-up palanquin. Hold the slaw,
hold the breading—just give me some skin.

Guidelines and Selection for October Contest Submissions

Respond to the prompt below in the genre (poetry or prose) indicated. Send an email with your submission attached to creative@sinkholemag.com. In the subject line, include “PROMPT, Last Name, Submission Title.” One submission per person, and standard sub requirements apply (double-spaced, Word doc or PDF only). There is no cost. Deadline for response is November 8th, 2018.

Our creative editors will read all the submissions and choose a winner. We reserve the right to choose multiple or no winners.

The winner will be featured in December’s Creative Juicing post, and will likely get a shout out over social media.

header image: “Scream on a barrow,” Casey Hugelfink / flickr