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Elegy Broadcast from the Top of a Radio Tower

BY EMILY KNOTT

Honorable Mention for the 2014 Adroit Prize for Poetry
Judge: Richie Hofmann

I once saw someone break
open like a question—
a girl with light under her skin,
her children gathered like rivers
behind a dam
in a house with no windows.
I remember only the girl’s wedding,
the comet tail of her gown
held in the children’s hands
like so much light,
her potential flung to a universe unfolding
so that all anyone could see
was the glowing map of her veins.

Emily Knott is a rising sophomore at Princeton University originally from South Carolina. Her writing has received national recognition from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and the National YoungArts Foundation.