Honorable Mention
Men slap their dominoes hard on the picnic table. But they’re friends, they go way back, they’re not really mad, so it’s fine. Black girls with ponytails dipped in their mama’s shea buttered-hands push themselves into a sway, sway, sway on the swings. Their ponytails were clipped with red, white, blue, and black plastic barrettes before mama shooed them out the house to play until sundown. It’s here, at the edge of Roxbury, near the tippy top of Dorchester, that these girls bring their own bodies and imaginings as far up as they can go, and back down again.
Sherell Barbee, 23 Years old,
Jamaica Plain.