Christine Curley Memorial Award 2021

The Christine Curley Memorial Award for Creative Writing has been established by Christine’s parents to be presented annually to the students who display interest and potential in creative writing.

During Christine’s high school years, she showed great promise as a poet, and the hope of her parents is that this award will encourage other students to pursue in their writing the spirit with Christine so beautifully demonstrated in her own.

A faculty committee has chosen

Eva Hymes & Veda Nandikam

to receive this year’s award.

I Believe In What Babies Laugh At

Eva Hymes

I believe in what babies laugh at 
The glance of a stranger
The peek of an eye behind a hand
The gentle passing of white dragons across the sky.

Nothing complex, nothing worthwhile,
Just the slight of a moment and the captivating air it possesses.

I believe in blowing away dandelions 
Sending wishes into the wind and taking moment to hope that something is listening
Letting fairies and dust and magic exist for mere seconds because there’s no reason not to.

I believe in early mornings and sunrises
Our center blending with the clouds,
Creating an irreplicable watercolor above our heads.
The silence of the streets and the groans of morning dew
Moments of solace, loneliness,
Like the world was created for you.

I believe in what babies smile about
The simplicity of not understanding
The touch of another
And believing that you, alone, can create the world 

The Fog

VEDA NANDIKAM

poseidon’s horses gallop along the Jetstreams
         Waves breaking as their hooves hack against the hills
there is no holding back the overflowing banks like
                     rivulets of Lava meandering down to the streets

yet this new city stands stronger than pompeii
          the Fire threatens to blind but not to burn the souls
that gaze at this mysterious cadeau 
                     waiting on the cooling streets

the sky foam pirate ships sail through the murky Waters
          past towers that could block the Sun from kailash
only to be cut apart by the iron strings holding together the bridge 
                     connecting two sides of the Canyon splitting the streets

what would it take? for someone to surf those waves
          alongside the jockeys and the pirates
To fly in such an incandescent manner
                   that their jubilant cries would resonate through the streets

• Category: Christine Curley Memorial Award, Poetry, Prose