We used to be two girls

Who were homeschooled,

Tied our hair into buns

Even when we weren't in ballet class

And did arts and crafts in our free time.

We used to be two precocious girls

Who were interested in geography

And did co-ops with your church

And played piano in the growing dimness of twilight.

I used to be the tiny girl

Who would hide under tables

And refuse to speak for any reason

And you used to be the smart girl

Who was friendly and nice

And loved origami.

We used to write about my OC aMbER,

Build hideouts in your basement

And excitedly brew potions, theorising about time machines

As we laid out in your back garden.

Now you're a woman in an Ivy League School,

With 2 years of public high-school under your belt

Someone who doesn't have time for the Nutcracker

But still drinks chamomile tea and bakes scones once in a while.

Now I'm a man in a community college 

Who's finally found a glimmer of hope in the future

After a brutal public high-school career

Who still listens to music through an ipod (although its no longer Christian rock)

And writes his own once in a while. 

I'm still quiet and wear glasses

Study French and Spanish and Mandarin like I always wanted to,

Crochet while listening to multi-hour long videoessays,

And read webnovels deep into the early morning hours. 

I still post on the Chatterbox while you've moved on

(I remember how excited you were to it introduce me that summer) 

And wonder if you remember what it was like to be a kid:

Summer has always been a season of youth, after all.

Late nights where its warm enough to go out barefoot and catch fireflies

Treehouse sleepovers and a maze of twisting fairy lights

Planting flowers in the garden, painting out in the sun

Summer sports and the smell of chlorine and sunscreen

No school, vacation and playing and sweating and music

Eating jam and bread at the early break of dawn

Ice cream chills and sipping down iced tea and lemonade

And watching the sun set as September creeps closer.

I wonder if you remember what it was like to be a kid,

Because I do, and I miss it. 

PLS WAIT I HAVE A POEM SORRY

ife is now a mirror image of what it once-always-never was

tender hands that held chunky crayons now wield ink pens

large eyes of forget-me-not blue are now deep crying cyan

paper claws and plastic fangs faded into sharp cutting words 

I healed and I hurt forever I destroyed and I nurtured endlessly 

I'm just a paradox of a patchwork girl sewn together by hate

Just a reflection of a broken girl in her shattered one-way mirror 

I built up from scraps and scrapes to a stitched palace of time

I am always i am never i am once i am forever and i hurt hurt hurt

using lipstick as my paint and shadows and dark places as canvas

The fire burning inside me scorches with ignited flames of pain

Vengeance is a fools game and yet i am playing it as a queen

Chapped lips and broken nails hide corroded love and hate

Every life i live is just a repeat of this tourney of twisted hearts

Every lie counts against me in this never-ending game of cards 

Picking the rose makes my hand the same crimson by brutal thorns

Why can’t my universe regain it’s clouds of everlasting ignorance?

I was never told so i learned wrong on my own the truth i didnt deserve

My hollow heartbeat a deadly rhythm of cursive to hide words in loops and swirls

Breaking unwritten rules and defying unseen boundaries was my life

The life that i’m forced to live over until i don’t

Sorry lizards, I'm probably going to judge tomorrow instead of today. I really am tired, and I want to make sure I can still do homework because I've literally spent 46 minutes (okay I got distracted somewhere in the middle) trying to decide wHo wInS (why are everyone's poems so good??? :) ) and I still have to do a bunch of chores and extracurricular activities outside of homework and yupp :D so off to do some Spanish homework (and then folding clothes, doing laundry, cleaning my room, doing Girl Scout stuff, oh I should probably practice my cello too, and wait I think I have a math test tomorrow I have to study...)~

Judging!! Everyone's poems were fantastic, as always; I really do mean it. It was... really hard to decide a winner, or even the places, seriously, everyone was amazing, as you can see from my earlier post haha. Let's get started!

Honorable mentions (as always, in no particular order)~

AvaraStar! - your poetry is always amazing, and this poem was no exception. I loved this so much!! You hit hard with nostalgia in the first verses, while also having this air of childhood innocence and carefree happiness. And I, too, had a Rainbow Dash... well, it was a jacket, but still!, when I was younger, and I think(??) that it was a jacket that was very dear to me (why am I speaking so formally all of a sudden?? :P I guess because it's fun :D), so your poem especially resonated with me. I also am that girl who regularly has mats in her hair (and I would like to think of myself as someone with stars in her eyes! :D although the stars would probably burn my eyes out, if taken literally... so instead we'll take it literature-ly! As in literature! See what I did there? :D ...okay yeah that was a horrible pun :P I honestly love it though. Welcome to my sense of humor! Why is it so devoid of air flow in here? Yeah, sorry, I don't have many fans...), so :D also I wanted to say, I especially LOVE that verse, "Do you remember that girl/who drew dragons,/only dragons?" because YES when you're little, you are STUBBORN. You will draw ONE THING and ONE THING ONLY. At least, in my perspective. So, yessss :DD Overall, I love your poem (says I, for the millionth time, without providing any real, tangible feedback); it's so simple but hits so hard, especially that last line. Splendid job!

Moon Wolf! - your poems are always MINDBLOWING (in a good way, ofc ;) ), and I loved this one too!! It has an air of solemn hope to it that is beautiful---right from the first line. "To breathe is to live and to live is to know---when the harsh cold winter no longer dances snowflakes but frozen tears" I love that line! :D and ahh nostalgia~

KatanaLuna! - your poetry is also always awesome---I'm in awe of how you can pack a poem so that it's dense with words and description, but it doesn't feel at all like purple prose, and instead is a work of beauty. This poem was so good!! I especially love the line, "tender hands that held chunky crayons now wield ink pens" because it encapsulates the passing of time so well, and you can almost see the person grow up. Also, sidenote, but your choice of the word "wield" makes me think of the quote "the pen is greater than the sword" (or really just wielding something in general), which is really interesting. As someone is growing up, are they finding meaning and purpose, something that makes them wield the pen instead of just holding it? The poem seems hopeless, but wielding the pen makes me think it isn't really (after all, you hint at this a lot in here, like you're building to get out of this never-ending spiral). I also love the line "Picking the rose makes my hand the same crimson by brutal thorns"---it's such an interesting thought, and I've never thought about it before. I also love your ending---"The life that i’m forced to live over until i don’t". I think it's so great because you can look at it from two ways (like the rest of the poem): hopelesness and hope. Great job!

And now, in a tie for third place~

Amethyst! - okay so this is amazing?? The lines are just the right length to keep you breathless for the next, and each word hits---hard. Each word feels picked and placed, and your execution and that final line are masterful. I love how you didn't have any capitalization or punctuation too, it really makes the poem hit different. Wonderful job!!

Woodwind! - your poetry never fails to blow me away, and this one was... masterful (I feel I'm saying everything is masterful. Well, but everything is masterful! Lol :) ). Consider me blown away again. Your format worked so well---short letters but each line is a punch. (also, can we talk about how cool the word epistolary is for a second?? Like, a word devoted to letter writing?? I never knew that existed :0 that is awesome. We should use it more often.) I... yeah, idk. This was amazing.

And in a tie for second place, we have...

Jaybells! - okay, AGAIN, your poems are always amazing, and this one was... well, amazing :P (completely unrelated sidenote, but the hummingbird outside the window has been going for almost an hour and a half now (it's been an hour twenty) and it's honestly sorta impressive? I mean, it doesn't seem to be getting anywhere for the most part (sometimes it ducks down and drinks from the flowers), but it's still going? I wonder why...) This poem was... like, ow? Nostalgia. o_O I just keep rereading this because it's like beautiful and heartbreaking and I'm nostalgic for the things that happen in the future and for being in the present because I know that this won't last. This just captures everything so perfectly. Fantastic work!

Hawkstar! - I loved your rhymes in this one!! Especially the first few verses, the rhymes seemed almost playful, but then when we got to the turning point, they turned solemn. Your verses captured (aHhHhHhHh I'm saying this so many times but how else do I describe it?!???) childhood innocence and youth SO WELL, and the more solemn verses were so---maybe even painfully---relatable. I absolutely loved all your asides too. Overall, this was an absolutely amazing, and---wait---I'm going to say it again---masterful poem, and it really fit the theme of kids really well too! Amazing job!

And in first place...

Periwinkle! - ahh I love your poem sm!! "We're just kids, we can't help it" is such a great line---it really makes me think of childhood innocence, and the way it builds up to the end and takes a new take on the line---"What if I'm still a kid and I can't help it?" is awesome! And it's such an interesting concept too---my parents like to say that they're still kids at heart, and I think that you never really do grow up. You're always growing, and even if you're a legal adult, everyone probably still feels like a kid at some point in their legal adult lives (:0). And man, to go back to my earlier comment because I just reread your poem, your build is amazing. It's nostalgic in the best way, and then it builds to the top of that, and the realization dawns. And... what if we're all still kids and we can't help it? What if tomorrow we get up and sing silly songs and maybe we'll cringe a bit because we sound horrible but what if? And what if we're all still sometimes stubborn and I don't think anybody can be responsible all the time and what if sometimes we just want to sit down and eat a waffle sundae? I mean, this is a masterpiece. Congratulations! You're our next judge!

Congrats, Peri!!! And thank you for judging, Celine! I always appreciate the breakdown, and I'm glad you had so much fun with all of our poems! :)

Thank you so much, Celine! And thank you everyone else who went out of their way to tell me they liked my poem, too - it made my day :D Everyone's poems were great.

The next theme is lost and I will judge on the 21st. I can't wait to see what you come up with!