3rd Place Winner of the Winter Poetry Contest: Places I’ve Found God - Elizabeth Shanaz

frozen food aisle dumplings / a foundation stain on a dress shirt’s shoulder / a

bowl of cut up cantaloupe / an overpacked car of the A Train / a broken traffic

light / a pothole that almost broke my car in half / a WhatsApp chain message /

a promethazine fever dream / an image of plastic bottles filled with rice floating

from Egypt’s coastline / in a poem / in this poem / the spill of an overfilled

laundry hamper / Tupperware with stubborn stains / cups of strawberry milk /

those night gowns from the dollar store / teeth waiting under pillows / a kitten’s

fanged yawn / the decided whoosh of a Doppler / the snow cone lady’s freezer /

an off-the-books envelope of cash / a foot long cheese pull / the dusty floor of a Famous Amos / teeth marks on pencils / teeth marks on necklines / cart coffee /

lamb over rice / airport departures / food drive pickup lines / airport arrivals /

calls never returned / all of my regrets / in the mirror / staring back at me

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Elizabeth Shanaz is a New York based writer. Her work has been featured in Playboy, Human/Kind, Defunkt, PREE Lit, Zhagaram Literary, BRAWL Literary, Wildscape Literary Journal, Blood + Honey Literary Magazine, Soul Forte, Last Stanza Poetry Journal, The Literary Times, and the Blue Minaret, among other journals and magazines. She was nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology in the category of Poetry. She studied writing and literature at CUNY City College before earning her law degree from NYU School of Law. She is the proud child of Guyanese immigrants.