In 2022, we held a contest inviting poets to write two 22-word poems. The poems below include our two favorite sets of poems plus our two favorite individual poems from the remaining contest entries.

The Only Thing Left
was his smell. Buried in his collar, dank, musk after rain. He must have pounded the brakes on that slick country road.
How Did It Feel
to be lifted to the sky? Plunge. Strike solid ground. I’ve heard time slows. I wonder, did he smell his own fear?
—Diane Gottlieb
***
Dialect
I owe you, my students,
an explanation.
My Spanish accent
isn’t listed in the textbook,
I reclaimed my heritage
with Univision Spanish.
Genealogy
Tree branches fill:
names I never knew,
homelands that once were,
languages lost.
My grandfather’s glee
was compensation enough
for the research.
—Angela Acosta
***
Ashura
That was
before,
when the owl sang
during the day.
When the cactus
was only smooth edges.
When the roses
were yellow.
—Fatima van Hattum
***
I Heard Your Voice in Passing
The road was wet
with laughter. Buzzing:
the emptiness after.
All it has left me
(deflated, seeking, unaware—
driving backwards)
is despair.
—Julia Watson