The following is the poem chosen by Haldane teachers to submit to the 2026 New York State of Poetry Contest:
To Lovely Psyche
This is the one truth nobody
wants to tell you: but I
will be frank:
the truth told out of love
that will stain
your garish marble palace
the truth that will leave you
standing on that spire
waiting to jump
I will tell the secret to you
and when I do, will you let me
drag you back home?
I know you enjoy married life
Lounging in your palace
in this picturesque kingdom
with your mysterious husband.
But can’t you tell
he is a monster, scaly and
bestial.
I tell this secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Listen closely. Let my words
Be an olive branch: Come home!
Oh my lovely, naive sister
Please return
to me. Alas,
a tragic error
He was beautiful all along.
