{"id":22937,"date":"2025-05-20T14:28:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T21:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/?page_id=22937"},"modified":"2025-05-20T14:32:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T21:32:56","slug":"2025-peter-sears-poetry-prize-runner-up","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/2025-peter-sears-poetry-prize-runner-up\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Peter Sears Poetry Prize Runner-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carla Macedo “<\/strong>Parking Garage”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

At the top<\/p>\n

of the hospital parking garage.<\/p>\n

perched on my truck\u2019s toolbox<\/p>\n

I scan the windows of the COVID<\/p>\n

floor, and see the hollow faces<\/p>\n

of nurses floating through<\/p>\n

the hall and wonder,<\/p>\n

if any of them know you.<\/p>\n

The line rings once,<\/p>\n

labored breathing, I ask,<\/p>\n

Can you flicker your lights for me?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The top left window of the highest floor<\/p>\n

explodes with frantic light, I jump to the edge<\/p>\n

of the truck bed, I wonder if I can tightrope<\/p>\n

from the top of the parking garage to you.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Found you!\u00a0<\/em>I smile so maybe,<\/p>\n

you can see the light of the moon reflecting<\/p>\n

off my teeth. Your ghost, dressed in white,<\/p>\n

passes by the window. Breaking out<\/p>\n

into a cold prickling sweat,<\/p>\n

I ask,\u00a0did you just get up<\/em><\/p>\n

to go to the bathroom?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Your heavy breaths rattle<\/p>\n

stopping long enough to whisper:<\/p>\n

No, I can\u2019t get up. The tubes won\u2019t let me.<\/em><\/p>\n

But it was your ghost by the window,<\/p>\n

clear as walking into Mom\u2019s house<\/p>\n

last month for posole and fresh tortillas.<\/p>\n

I press my free hand to my mouth,<\/p>\n

and start to cry. I don’t want to scare you.<\/p>\n

I whisper back:<\/p>\n

Oh it must\u2019ve been the wrong room.<\/em><\/p>\n

I can hear your sheets rustle.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m waving my arm. Can you see me?<\/em><\/p>\n

I run to the end of the garage<\/p>\n

and stand on my tiptoes.<\/p>\n

Nothing.<\/p>\n

Yes Brian, I see you.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carla Macedo “Parking Garage”   At the top of the hospital parking garage. perched on my truck\u2019s toolbox I scan the windows of the COVID floor, and see the hollow faces of nurses floating through the hall and wonder, if any of them know you. The line rings once, labored breathing, I ask, Can you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1424,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-22937","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22937"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22947,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/22937\/revisions\/22947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}