Waiting

Waiting for the morning,

Waiting for the sunrise,

Always waiting for the day,

When you'd come back to me.

ahh judging is so hard! all y'all's poems are lovely, but they're lovely in different ways, and it's so difficult to decide which is the "best"! so don't give my opinion more weight than it deserves; i'm only fourteen. --anyway, here're the results:

in third place we have WordSong!

this poem is lyrical and slightly mournful, and i especially like the last two lines: in the stillness of shining streetlamps & stars/life is only a countdown until it ends. the shortness of the poem seems fitting to the subject matter -- the ephemerality of life is a universal, relatable topic, and in essence a simple one. simple but elegant, and sad in a cosmic, wistful way. well done!

in second place, peppermint!

this is such a good poem -- true, and musing, and wonderfully full of imagery. as always with your poetry, the way the lines are broken up is perfect, especially at each/step/an/agonizingly/slow/ speed/and then there was a flicker and now I'm fifteen with curls cut to my shoulders and ragged converse on my feet and a mind that won't stop moving. it really effectively describes the way time moves, and sometimes leaves you breathless. (now i want to write a poem with that as the first line :P)

and in first, we have... *drumroll* ...Hex!

the repetition -- and the imagery, like WordSong says -- and it's so freaking relatable oh my Gandalf! I have felt this way, especially since I've entered high school. it's so true. and the way it ends is just perfect and full of dual meaning and wonderfully written. i don't have words.

except, you're the next judge. bon voyage :)

i have sometimes wondered if confidence is just a story told to us before we know what it is to be afraid

perhaps they wanted to inspire us. to give us a golden idea of what it is to be grown-up & to know what you are doing but now look at us

insecure & we are just picking up the pieces of ourselves. i wanted to be confident. i tried to be confident but it blew up in my face like seamus finnigan and a feather

it felt almost the same way when i realized i wouldn't get my letter to hogwarts & actually jk rowling was a terrible person.

i tried to be confident. fake it 'til you make it they say, so confidence is a the flash of a smirk and the flip of your hair

perhaps they wanted to inspire us. to make us excited for the passage of time as it rots our flesh & our bones begin to decay but now look at us

a little older a little weaker and still chasing after this confidence

we all just wanted to know what we were doing. we all just wanted to be sure

but now i am sitting with a tear-stained face in my hands at the foot of an unforgiving world & scrabbling at the scratched floors looking for you to put us back together

what happened to laughing and our gilded childhoods

i will wipe my tears away with the heel of my shaking hand. put on a smile & some lipstick

i'll flash you a smirk & my best hair flip and we'll laugh again

you'll never see me like this. confidence is a myth and i will let my baby cousin chase it with a smile on her face

i will let go of my jaded cynicism and remember what it is to be satisfied. i'll forget about you & your falling apart until a thread pulls loose again

and then i'll cry myself to sleep & remember nobody in this world ever knew what they were doing

not in a million years. i don't remember if this is supposed to be a comfort or a warning

make what you will of this tired story marching on & on & on because it has to.