Romanian Monthly Kukai - March 2016

Special Prize

lady’s slipper

clinging to a nettle like a leech -

out of the blue a thunder

Petruța Ionescu

Companions in the world of plants, a verbal performance, a bucolic idyll in a countryside landscape – all in one, masterfully interwoven. He sent a thunder and gathered them all together: the lady is head over heels after a nettle and clings to it like a leech. Mesaliance and gender freedom. (Corneliu Traian Atanasiu).

First Place

first nettles -

going by too fast

the honeymoon

Daniela Zglibuțiu

Second Place

reddened palms -

on the darkened kerchief

a handful of nettles

Doina Bogdan Wurm

Third Place

dead line -

only nettles still grow

among railways

Maria Tirenescu

stall in the market –

over yesterday’s news

piles of nettles

Daniela Lăcrămioara Capotă

Fourth Place

the fragrance of my native land

in one wooden spoon -

nettle broth

Mihaela Gheorghiu

Fifth Place

another kind of thrill -

my lover’s garden

full of nettles

Genovel Florentin Frățilă

empty yard –
only the nettles are again
near the old fence

Grigore Chitul

ancient fortress –

living among the ruins

only the nettles

Valer G. Pop

Sixth Place

picking nettles –

same colour

the gypsy woman’s eyes

Virginia Popescu

nettle soup -
in the old man’s eyes
a few stars

Ioana Bud