First Place | Poetry Writing Contest
60th New Millennium Award for Poetry
Victor McConnell of Golden, Colorado for “Love Junkies”
McConnell will receive $1,000 and publication both online and in print.
Love Junkies
Afternoon light came in through the window,
uninvited, but she didn’t move,
not even when it fully covered her,
that warm orange glow,
and she smiled, even though she wished
for the coolness of morning.
The day was theirs –
they had made it so.
Eye to eye,
cheek to cheek,
skin to skin.
Not the first to discover
how touch can slow time,
Nor the first to discover
how much exploration can be had
within the rectangle of a bed.
And they had crossed an ocean that day,
Perhaps before noon,
before the sun reached an angle from which
it could strike their bodies.
Yet now they’d made landfall
and could smile at that ocean
that they’d just traveled across,
for the voyage had been a peaceful one,
though not without wildness – or sadness.
And now, as the afternoon light kept growing,
carrying with it the promise
of evening shadows,
They knew that soon, finally,
they would have to move, to rise,
to re-enter a world of
dishes and food and phone calls,
albeit with the knowledge that soon,
in mere hours,
they would return to that rectangle,
where a whole new world –
one that exists after nightfall –
awaits.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victor McConnell grew up in a small town in Texas and graduated from Dartmouth’s creative writing program. His work has been nominated for Best of the Net and multiple Pushcart Prizes. His first poetry chapbook, If You Can Hear This, is available from Bottlecap Press. His first full-length book, a collection of short stories titled When Even the Bones Have Thinned, is forthcoming with Hidden River Press. His work can be found at www.victormcconnellauthor.com and on Instagram @victormcconnell.
Love Junkies © 2026 Victor McConnell