Nathan Spoon

THE WINNER

We were arguing to find out what
our real feelings could be. I

placed large olives on every other
fingertip. You felt

the preciousness of the air around your
second pair of ears. It was spring

until it wasn’t. I never knew
people like you could do the

things you do you said. Then a knife
opened in the heart of your

mind. The winner will have to die first
I said. Then you win you said.

Thank you I said. I
always wanted to be first at something.

NATHAN SPOON is an autistic poet with learning disabilities and the author of the forthcoming collection The Importance of Being Feeble-Minded (Nine Mile Books). His poems appear in Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry, Poetry Daily, and The Southern Review. He is editor of Queerly.