Young Writers Society

When you were here,
I never needed a nightlight
your luminous eyes were
like two shimmering
fireflies leaving trails
of stardust for me to gather
from the dusty corners
of the night sky
But now that you're gone
the shadows flicker
on my wall and behind
my eyes against
the velvet darkness
of my mind
I lie awake, scared of the dark
but too scared to close my eyes

9/30

Second Star to the Right

--

Softly, like the fingers of the rain,
tap on my windowsill
and wake my stagnant heart.

Hold out your hand and sweep
me away in Tinkerbell's fairy dust

Teach me to believe in my childhood again
Show me how to leave my shadow behind

Before the dawn, whisk me away to Neverland
Using the second star to the right as your compass
Show me how to navigate my way back to the place

Where the adult world is but a dream world and
dream world is but a waking reality
where fairies and mermaids play

where faith and trust are as vital as breathing
where Tinkerbell baptizes me in her fairy dust each morning

where hearts never age and souls never decay

Take my hand, and together,
we will shed our shadows
at the window seat,

Tonight, we're homebound for the place
past the second star to the right

10/30

x

Still Star Crossed

darling you should know
being with me is as easy
as tapdancing on a
landmine

i don't need flowers
or chocolates
or Romeo's flimsy poetry

you can rearrange the stars
into a letter professing
your love for me every
quirk you find
endearing

but I will find a way
to find ominence
in every single nuance

untangle all my snarled
strangs of star-dust
but on my worst days
I will cross our stars

i may be an empy basin
you try to fill with parchment
slips with compliments but
this lacerated heart will
use its scissor fingers
to tear to shreds
the lacy deliacy
of your handiwork

When will you learn
you can't save
a ship if its already capsized

you carved me out of stars
and scattered the dust
into the corners of the cosmos
for all of mankind to see
and rearranged my skies
into somethig almost decent

but not even your seamtress fingers
can untangle my snarled strands
of stardust that leave us star-crossed

12/30

My Mind is a Hospital

white walls, narrow halls
my mind is a hospital
the memories: ghosts

13/30

Apparition
--

the house lies under the cover of darkness
and the porch light, dimly lit to guide
a weary father home
he ghosts through the backdoor,
careful not to wake the children

he leaves a pair of muddy boots
and the burden of a 16 hour work shift
but he can't leave behind
the baggage of his eyes or the slumped back
that had once stood straight in his youth

a plate of cold dinner greets him
as he slouches in the wooden chair
that shares his burden
and burns his presence,

shuddering through the house
it is enough to wake the children
who take respite on the other side of the house
and are ripped from their refuge of sleep

they pad the corridor
to catch a glimpse
of the apparition
that roams their home at night
and vanishes before the sun rises

they see his specter in the kitchen
they don't worry because
they know he will be back
at his usual haunt
tomorrow night
resurrected by sickly gray
pallor of the moon

14/30

Not my best work but it was it was in response to tonight's poetry jam.

My prompt was to write a poem based on the song "Song on the Beach" by Arcade Fire.
we stood with on the precipice of the world
where the shore and the waves converge,
the grains of sand like a warm quilt under our feet
but every time the waves roll in, brushing my skin
tenatively like the unsure invitation of a shy caller,
I recoil, as if the smallest ripple
is disguised as tsunami

all creatures of Neptune's domain
including ships are designed
to keep moving forward
and our twin vessel hearts
were ingrained by Hermes
with a sense of wanderlust

ships were designed for voyage
but never for the stagnant safety
of a habor and. I know it's time
to relinquish the anchor
unfurl the sails

because the horizon glitters
and the impatient wind
pushes us beyond the limbo
of our comfot

the waves , both friend and foe,
catch us
15/30

Halfway through my Napo.

Based on "Roman Holiday" by Halsey

Roman Holiday
--
Mama warmed me of a dangerous breed of boys
the kind that wear leather jackets
cruise down the interstate at midnight
blasting Led Zeppelin with the sports top down
the wind blowing through their hair

For twenty years I heeded her,
guarding my heart but I was
born with a rebel streak
on the blank canvas of my heart
and when we I met Leonardo
he paintballed me in an explosion of color

All my life I had been like a white dress
but he came along with a prism smile
refracted all my white light into
his Mona Lisa, saturating me
in every color of the sunrise

He undid the latch off this montotone town
and together we took flight in his BMW
watching my hometown was nothing
more than a speck of dust for me
to shake off of my feet

we made our escape in
the simmering heart of the summer
when our blood boiled under the
sizzling sun and the fever
fogging my brain peaked

I didn't know where I was running
All I knew was the weight of your hand
in mine, the wind whipping through our hair
and the view of the sunset smile you gave me
before the dusk set in

we're zipping down the interstate
hearts feverish
the wind creating an atlas
of goosebumps on my arm
ghost trails to fade when you leave me

I bought a one-way ticket
but we weree pulling up to
a two-way street
and we diverged
you to pursue your career in music
and me to to reanchor my roots
after being uprooted

I got a cheap hotel room that night
as I lay awake trying to read my future
but it's hard to think when the fever
won't fall and all that remains
of my Roman holiday get away
is the fading palate of your smile

16/30

Tx