Crosswinds editor David Dragone and staff run a contest every year for a single poem. As often happens with these kinds of contests, first the editors identify contestants’ poems that they want to publish, and then they forward those poems to the final judge to decide finalists for the various prizes. So this is the second time a poem of mine has made it to the first tier of the Crosswinds contest (this year’s judging isn’t complete), meaning it will be published regardless of whether it makes it to one be one of the prizewinners. The poem “Relations” ponders inherited fate and one’s relations to the ancestors, which I suppose poets always have and always will write about.