First Prize Winner in the "Trio of Triolets" Contest: Laura Bandy

The "Trio of Triolets" contest yielded a lot of wonderful entries! Thanks to all who
entered for such a great contest!

Congrats to the first-prize winner, Laura Bandy, whose winning triolets are below!

Triolet 007

There are always two girls in a Bond flick,

One who will make it, the other who won’t.

Deciding which one you are is the trick.

There are always two girls in a bind. Be quick

Because James wants to put out the lights, click —

Are you twin sets and sock hops, or safe words and chokes?

There are always two girls. Tick tock tick.

One who will make it, the other who won’t.

Pick-Up Line Triolet with Cocaine: Elbo Room, Chicago

She likes a line now and again, that’s all.

Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?

he asks, then if she wants to party in the stalls.

She‘d like a line now.  And again. That’s all

it takes to hit the ceiling, star the neon, small

the world beneath. Red-lit faces, cracked shot glass

held at fractured lines again. She likes it all.

How everything hurts when she falls!  Heaven.

Tom Petty’s American Girl

You have to take it easy, baby, and make it last all night

to be a real American girl. To be a real boy, everyone knows

takes bravado and no more nose-growing, Pinocchio. Lighten

up, take it easy, don’t be a baby, baby. Gender is fluid all night,

you could be anyone under the stars. Stripes, spots, let’s get this right —

girls will be boys and boys will kills girls. We count the rows.

Baby, you’ll take it. It’s easy.  We make it all feel like night.

Girl? Boy? Everyone knows America isn’t real. 

Bio: Laura Bandy teaches at the University of Illinois-Springfield. 
She lives in Jacksonville, Illinois, home of the Ferris Wheel.