readergirlz writing contest: the 'remain vulnerable' winners

Extraordinarily fine work was submitted for the inaugural readergirlz writing contest, which asked writers to yield a brief piece of a fully lived emotion. In the end, a single winner would not do. Please join me in congratulating the winners here, below, who are all receiving signed copies of Undercover. And please join us for the second of the four contests, newly posted here.

Jennifer Petro-Roy is a librarian/graduate student in Library Science with eventual aspirations to be a young adult librarian/young adult author; she is at work on a memoir about her battle with and full recovery from anorexia and exercise addition.

My worth was in flesh, visible bones, rib cage mere piano keys to play.
Sweat and footfalls placated the fear. Body tense, I calculated my worth.
My mirage beckoned, grasped, screamed, pulling me deeper.
Can't stop, can't stretch, can't grow, can't be.
Just me. Am I enough?
Supplement my worth with nothing.
Prove I am through negatives and loss.
Fear. Relief. Fear. Always fear.
Until a step. A struggle. A Sisyphean slip.
Again. Stone in place, the view belongs to me.

Erin McIntosh likes writing poetry on windows and tulip stems, standing on roofs during dust storms, and Arizona sunsets.

it's when tears won't come
and neither will love
redemption is erased, the idea
of forgiveness a myth
we don't touch
or look
or speak
there is an indescribable air
filled with everything we
never wanted.

Lauren Miller lives in Pennsylvania and would someday like to write for a magazine like Seventeen, Popstar, or J14; she hopes to publish a book or two.

I've taken that leap, finally
after several attempts.
Slowly stripping one layer:
one by one.
I am fully exposed to you now.
Critique me if you like.
Hate me if you dare.
Love me, that'd be great.
No matter what you say,
it'll all just make me stronger.