Debut Prize in Poetry Winner: "unplugged" by Ayaz Mohammed

Here it is: winner for the 2020 Debut Prize in Poetry! Our guest judge, Luisa Muradyan picked Mohammed’s poetry from a pool of talented finalists, and she noted the following comment for “unplugged“:

This poem moves through language and intimacy in a really powerful way. One of my favorite aspects of this poem is that the speaker successfully fuses the natural world to the increasingly powerful digital one. I still can’t stop replaying the line, ‘What moves us, moves through us,’ each time I take a walk. In the best way possible, I found these poems haunting.

Congratulations, Poet!

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unplugged

I can jiggle the apps on my phone
like lily pads –
the water ripples when I touch it.

I can coil a watch
around my wrist,
and it will survey me in magnitudes –

millions –

Bytes. Gigabytes. Terabytes.
Tadpoles flowing through the blue vortex

Cones and rods, and the swirling

What moves us, moves through us.

What we don’t understand hidden
In the chamber, torch-lit

walls don’t exist in this plane

Our love shuts off – a blink –
a star in the night.

A phantom, starlit,

sitting on the bedside,

unwilling to turn.

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“unplugged“ is Ayaz Mohammed’s first poetry publication. Along with the poem’s publication with Touchstone, he was awarded a $50 cash prize (which he generously donated back to support Touchstone’s future development—Thank you, Ayaz!) and a broadside. The following broadside is designed by our talented artist and co-editor-in-chief: Mawi Sonna.

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