For Our Next Date | Hillary Smith-Maddern | Poetry Contest 2nd Place Winner - Winter 2025

I packed a book of poems for us to read

aloud in bed.     I want to hear your voice

embrace syllables intended to metaphor

the mundane.     I can taste it: the laundry,

the burned ham, the weekly shopping lists.

The way we stretch symbolism just a little

bit further than we think it can go.

Everything feels so hard lately. A platitude

so true it carries its own blinking neon

sign and an epilepsy warning.     Burnout

& loss are regular dinner guests. Sometimes

the world gets too heavy, so we reach

for silence & bleach & empty roads & I love you.

I have read so many books that compare

love to a summer's day or a waking dream or

a sun that sets itself on fire.     To me,

love is table wine & comfortable shoes &

allowing your hands to hold

the parts of me I cannot yet

find beautiful.    It is kissing all the memories

we pack in Styrofoam so they will not break

when we dare to jostle them alive.

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Hillary Smith-Maddern is a proud cat lady and collector of dilapidated plants. Her favorite things include cats, coffee, cobblestone streets, and the crisp, blank pages of a writing notebook. When she’s not writing, you can find her diving down weird rabbit holes, hiking a mountain, or yelling about the patriarchy. Her poetry has been featured in Only Poems, Rogue Agent, and the Disappointed Housewife, among others. She resides in Western Massachusetts.