Theme
3rd Place

Ed Block

Florida Man goes dancing through my dreams
his antics more bizarre each day it seems.
He pops up everywhere, is he a ghost?
Or is he more than one? A parasite? A host?
He weaves along palm-haunted drives
and often ends up in the Tamiani dives.
He frequents Mar-a-Lago bars
and praises right-wing TV to the stars.
Florida Man defies the odds
by dancing on a knot of snakes unshod.
He drives his Porsche into a pond
then rises resurrected with a blonde
who clings to him with coy lordotic pose
in sheath and torn black fishnet hose.
Florida man develops scars
from dodging in and out
of wrong-way speeding cars.
Florida man ingests a lethal dose
of mushrooms but survives to boast.
Florida man tells lies and claims they’re truth
he is himself a hoax long in the tooth.
Florida Man’s no figment of imagination
he’s hailed as hero: one to save the nation.

Judge’s Comments: What’s not to love about Florida Man? This poem’s real genius is the using of couplets that run the risk of boring us with silly expected rhymes but end up surprising us with subtlety and verve in places. I also love the weird, unexpected images—like “knot of snakes”—and the strategically elevated diction here and there, such as words like “lordotic.” This poet took a silly topic and treated it poetically in serious and artful way. That is difficult to do.