aah forgot about this sorry sorry--

in third place we have Peri!

heartbreaking but conveyed so well... the way you've broken up the lines is perfection. you've managed to say something so emotive with relatively few words, which is hard but really powerful when done well, as it is here.

in second place -- pangolin!

it rhymes! i'm applauding. i have never been able to successfully rhyme while still being linguistically agile, but obviously you can do it. the rhythm of this poem is lovely. and i love how you've interpreted "armor," particularly the last two lines. they conclude the poem perfectly; sharp and sad and human.

and in first place we have Silver Crystal!

this is just so pretty and evocative -- i love how you've included what these different concepts taste like, and that line at the end that ties it up so perfectly. this is a great interpretation of "armor," and beautifully expressed. aand you're the next judge! :)

past-tense dancing

remember our first school dance?

the cafeteria was decorated with fairy lights

and there was music i’d never admit i enjoyed

it was a nice night, i think

but i’d have forgotten it by now if it wasn’t for you

i remember you clearly:

dark hair and dark eyes, 

eye makeup that must’ve taken you an hour

and a confident smirk

i think i swore under my breath 

when you walked in the room

i think that’s what you wanted

you’ve always loved to be the center of attention -

which i hate

you’ve always loved to be seen -

but i’m invisible 

i don’t get you

but that night i thought i did 

and more importantly i thought you got me when 

you grabbed my hand and said

you’d teach me how to dance

remember that?

i think deep down i knew i was just your backup even then,

but seeing the way you look at him 

makes me better understand it

i’d say it’s like a dagger to the heart,

but maybe i’m the one to blame

maybe it’s my fault that that was then and this is now

maybe it’s my fault that i’m living in the past 

because i hate that i was never who you really wanted in your future.

This one's weird. I'm not sure I like it very much.

~~~ 

tick…

tock…

memories fade with time

an ~echo~ of their past selves

dwindling into a periwinkle sky,

darkvines and webs tracing

intertwining into a beautiful spread

of forgotten thread,

a rainbow of silver crystal tears

false, fragmented, but beautiful

shining with luminescence

it’s like when the lyric’s on the tip of your tongue

but the words get all mixed up coming out

they’re fake anyway

usernames

little more than masks

hiding true selves

the shy hiding behind the lupine, wolfy,

flawless façade 

and

some day, some time,

after we’ve all left

and the jynx of distance is passed on to the next generation,

in some future

in our future 

all that’s left

will be memories

fading

with time

tick…

tock… 

I am the type of person

Who pretends to live in the present --

Things didn't always used to be this way

Nor will they ever be quite the same again.

And somehow I love motion and dances

And overflows of raw emotion,

So why does change break me so? 

Why, so often, do I send myself tumbling,

Falling into the abyss

Of what lies beyond this moment?

Why subject ourselves to the volatile whims of time? 

What do we hope to achieve by building a better life

Out of mental constructs and busy work and applications?

All the while we ignore our now,

Our present, our living, our feeling.

We become little more than forward-marching machines,

Told there is no path other than onward

And it gouges,

Deep and painful to our cores,

We know there must be a better way

And yet we are far to blind and senseless to find it.

So we are pushed on

By the ever-ticking momentum of the clock,

A conveyor-belt of reality, 

Praying

For sight to be bestowed upon us,

Tentative, anxious for when the fall will come 

Entirely taken off guard when it finally arrives.

Future is a nightmare,

The most terrifying of concepts

In many ways. 

you know, if you squint you might be able to see it. 

it's right there,  

hanging on the old, gnarled oak tree in the backyard. 

(or perhaps on the cresent moon? or the door of your childhood bedroom? or maybe it's floating on the waves of a lake?)  

it's a framed picture.

the edges are gold and have flowers carved around the edges. 

(or perhaps it's a lovely powder blue with wooden ants marching around the frame? or a silver with birds stamped into the metal?)  

you know, there's a picture inside, 

but everyone's face is blurry, 

except for yours. 

you have the same eyes and freckles and curls, 

but it's as if the watercolor filling in all the gaps of your soul,  

had been washed away, 

leaving only the inking behind, 

and then every part of you was repainted in 

bright bright bright 

colors.  

did you know the future is the color of poppies and the ocean in a storm and the peel of an orange?  

(or perhaps the color of pink lemonade and goldfish scales and leaves of a cherry tree?)  

well,

don't blink. 

it'll all go away.  

8 ways to say i love(d) you

i. i sit next to you on a piano bench & confess everything everything everything

& it’s still true, even now, years & years later, & then i will die because you’ll say it all back everything everything

everything & you are too good for this rambling

i wanted it to be poetic

ii. in another world

it is poetic. & everything comes out the way i want it to, & i don’t give myself to you so wholeheartedly

but then i am not sitting next to you on a piano bench, hair dripping chlorine with a flushed face & beating heart

but then i am not sitting next to you, & it isn’t everything everything everything

so maybe i like it this way, unarticulate & unplanned, better.

iii. or maybe

i didn’t say anything at all. maybe

we sat here, playing heart & soul too many times until everybody begs us to stop

but we don’t, because they’re not us & they’re just jealous 

we could have this much fun in thirteen notes of plastic ivory. & i still look at you

with my heart in my eyes & the silence is oppressively loud.

iv. i sit next to you on a piano bench & confess everything everything everything

& it’s still true, even now, but you say nothing nothing nothing, & then i will die

because all i ever wanted was to be loved & you can’t give that to me

i am too late too little & i could have been enough for you but it doesn’t matter now

v. maybe i’ll get over it.

maybe ten years from then, you’ll still be my bestest friend yet not the love of my life

i will toast you on your wedding day, marrying a lovely girl with flowers tucked behind her ears

& i look at you with my heart in my eyes & nothing hurts & everything is beautiful

vi. maybe i won’t

maybe you will marry a girl with flowers tucked behind her ears

& i’ll toast you with the heart in my eyes breaking breaking breaking &

nothing is beautiful except you

vii. in another life i never loved you at all

but i think this is the saddest one. how do i say i don’t regret you

how do i say that even if we end up nothing & you don’t stay my everything

i don’t regret anything? how do i say thank you

i wouldn’t be half the person i am if it weren’t for you.

viii. in this life

perhaps the truest of them all, really, i sit next to you on a piano bench & i confess everything everything everything

& i don’t know what to say, because how do you tell your best friend that she is somebody you used to love

but you needed to know this, because baby, in every possible reality you are so important

because baby, in every possible future i want you to know how much you meant to me

because baby, the future doesn’t even matter right now.