We’re pleased to announce the winner of the April WWWC: Sarai Mannoli-Winwood! Responding to the prompt ‘come Monday’, Sarai’s poem ‘I’ll dream of this’ ruminates on the quiet mundanity and joy of days away from work.

Read her winning piece below.

I’ll dream of this

I reach blindly for the noise, silence it twice.
My shoulders pop and groan as if 
the sleep I shuck was minutes, not hours;
my toes tap tap tap the dog until 
we both groan in harmony, 
before subsiding to be enfolded warm again. 
come Monday
no slow starts 
The whites drizzle down the bowl’s side, 
ineptly cracked and angled poorly, it 
left bubbled patches on the bench. 
Buttered toast humidity clogs the air, 
until time for a second coffee causes 
plates to be licked clean by lathing tongues. 
come Monday 
damp cereal in the sink 
A cold hand rolled around mine. 
Fairy tale apples, crackling bread, fresh almond milk, 
grass still damp underfoot, squelches, as 
musos sing moody mornings over dew, 
hot salted chocolate drizzles across my fingers 
you draw them in, clean them, I blush. 
come Monday 
you’ll annoy me again 
Sand shifts listlessly under footsteps, 
barks bounds braying happiness fills it all 
while insulted seagulls shove to move not at all. 
My hair wraps in seaweed strands around my face, 
as salt across my teeth feels like children at play; 
we leave our phones in the car. 
come Monday 
beaches only on monitors 
Dishes are stacked, the wok wobbling, 
smacking lips sound over YouTube views; 
‘travel to exotic places,’ they cry, 
just down the road from us here, 
crisp chardonnay in dusty glasses; 
you laugh so I laugh so the dog farts. 
come Monday 
microwaved meals 
Erotic flourish of floss is made with fingertips, 
gyrations of leering toothbrushes in the mirror, 
out goes the dog with the bin to howl, 
you wink suggestively, yawn, and smile a half, 
our ebooks left abandoned to the side, 
we reach through darkness, well-worn paths. 
come Monday 
I’ll dream of this 

Sarai Mannolini-Winwood (she/her) is an avid creative writer as well as a literary theorist and academic living in Kwoorabup/Denmark, WA. She is intrigued by how we make sense of ourselves through our writing. Her work is available academically in TEXT, Creatio Fantastica, and Axon, professionally in The Artifice, and creatively in Eunoia Review, Emerging Possibilities, and Creature.