Congratulations to Annette Spaulding-Convy, winner of this year's Floating Bridge Press Poetry Chapbook Award. In the Convent We Become Clouds is hot off the presses, and includes a gorgeous letterpress cover designed by Jules Remedios Faye. Read more about Annette and her chapbook here.


THERE WERE NO RULES ABOUT UNDERWEAR

My friend, the Carmelite, could only wear white
non-bikini panties, laceless bras,

but my Order was progressive — red satin, cut
to show some hip, a midnight-blue Wonderbra

hidden under my habit. The fathers were perceptive, not priest
fathers, but men who flirted with me

while their daughters lit Virgin
of Guadalupe candles in the chapel alcove,

men like the firefighter, who ran into my bedroom
the summer night I slept nude, flames

in the cloister attic. I pulled the sheet around my body
as he looked at black lace on the floor —

I need to feel your walls to see if they're hot.