November Monthly Contest Winner

Editor's Note: As college students, there’s something remarkably reassuring and relieving in the
prospect of coming home. No matter what that home might look like, knowing we can 
retreat from the craziness of college life for the holidays makes these wintry November 
and December days just a little warmer. Though we received many submissions which 
did a great job of capturing that feeling, this piece was unique in that it beautifully 
identifies a very different kind of home, one crafted entirely by nostalgia and 
vulnerability.
-Bailey Tulloch, Monthly Contest Committee Head, R2: The Rice Review

Note: There will be no December contest, but we are now taking submissions for our 
annual magazine and our contests should be up and running again in the spring. Visit us 
at r2ricereview.com for more information!

Scraping Stars
By Miranda Proctor

Stars scraped against the sky
pier cing tenuous twi light.

Breezes breathed life as
ghosts of notes
from the mariachi band

below
wafted to her
rooftop perch.


Legs
dangling--

gravity

begging

her

to

fall.

Concrete
bit the bow
of her Achilles--
the roughness leaving
a shadow of a kiss.

She watched as
down
below in the courtyard
charro men
ducked         forward
and women twirled skirt tails
like the

fal
         ling
                   fea
                            ther

of a macaw

spi
          ral
                    ing
                    to
          the
ground.


When they met
their charro men
their dresses grew ravenous--
whip ping from
                  side                                    to                                     side.

All eyes threw light
back up
to the scraping stars
above.

                                                 Finally


                                                 She was home.