The Arlington County Sheriff’s Office recently partnered with HEARD, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering creativity, confidence, and self-worth through the arts, to host a Creative Writing Contest inside the ACDF. Contest categories included fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, with first through third place winners recognized in each category.
Judging was conducted by representatives from Arlington Magazine, The Inner Loop, and Dr. S. L. Young, founder of the nonprofit SOCARTES, who speaks and writes extensively on overcoming challenges and living with purpose.
This initiative highlights the Sheriff’s Office’s ongoing commitment to supporting rehabilitation and personal growth by creating opportunities for self-expression and reflection.
The following poem, written by the first-place winner in the poetry category, offers a powerful glimpse into the depth of creativity, emotion, and hope that emerged from this initiative.
First Place Poetry Winner by Anonymous
“Tangerine Sky”
Oh how I dream of electric sunbeams
Cascading solar flares across a tangerine sky
Bringing waves of grain that wash away pain
Towering doug firs where the sleeping sheep sigh
Gentle warm breeze flows whisking lavender throes
Marigold whispers laced with raspberry pie
Sweet seabird calls and hypnotic rainfalls
Sky greeting sea where haystacks God cries
I curse the day I was led far astray
Drawn eastward by charlatans with sweet nothing lies
Seed planted by green tangled with invisible weeds
Once pristine purposed dreams dirtied as rancid pigsty
Lost I became soiled deeply in shame
Rotten to the core swarming madly with flies
I repent of my sins trapped deeply within
I relinquish my quest and cut off my ties
One day I’ll return where my hearth warmly burns
Where my wrongs are forgiven and my spirit soars high
A land of salvation without cost no matter how lost
Where the only penance asked is to give thanks and try
I long to come home after being alone
Where love flows thicker than water and no one asks “why”
Oh how I dream of the day when I return to the fray
To lie down in the meadow under my tangerine sky
