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Dear Victoria, You Kill Me

by Lightsong


Dear Victoria, you kill me twice. I am a goldfish,
content in swimming around my safe space,
a pool in a jar, when you take me out of it.
I suffocate and yet you shoot me while smiling.

You liked to be worshipped like a god
while shopping in the mall, striking poses
to those who wanted to capture your beauty
in eternity. You were pleased with their reverence.

I was a wishful girl. I knew I could send you a message
just by a click on your Facebook, but I shied away
from the mouse, afraid it would determine my fate.
Could this bespectacled stranger even interest you?

And yet I did - after I clicked. You replied to my message.
You said my grumpiness was like your neighbor’s cat
and while you were allergic to it, you didn’t mind
hugging me because I made you smile (you said it).

Dear Victoria, please kill me with your words again.
If I’m a cat or a goldfish, you are a cactus and a lily.
No one can touch you without hurting themselves,
But you turn to a flower the moment I hold your hand.

A/N: This one is made for the Stock Photo Poetry contest and I'm pretty proud of it. This is the first time I made a lesbian romantic poem. What do you guys think?


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Fri Mar 02, 2018 4:19 pm
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alliyah wrote a review...



Hey Lightsong! Glad to see you posted your poem from the Stock Poetry challenge - it is not difficult to see how you took the Gold for that as it's a fabulous poem even without knowing you had to work in the different stock photos. :)

Pacing/Flow
One aspect I find sort of interesting but enjoyable is how the you really used your word economy in this piece. The very first line establishes 3 different things rather than just pulling in one thought -- the poem moves quickly but you take a few lines (like the question or when you dwell on a description) to slow the pace of the reading down. Flipping back and forth from lines with a lot of information and phrases to ones that are basically one sentence is a great way to build interest so the poem doesn't get dull as the reader goes through it.

Metaphors/Images
Because of the stock photo references you end up having some really varied and unique metaphors rolling through here. My favorite is probably the line with the cat and allergies -- funny image that makes the point that there seemed to be some tension between them that wasn't quite resolved. The goldfish metaphor works with the cat one too, because they're both in the same realm of images, however the cactus/lily one (though strong) didn't feel like it belonged in the same poem. If you could add another type of desert or nature or flower reference in the first half the last stanza would feel like it fit in better.

Theme/Narrative
Like many of your poems, you nail the narrative aspect. There are clear characters with full fledged personalities and specific conflict and emotional intrigue. I interpreted this poem as one woman/girl really would like to reach out to Victoria, though Victoria is almost a bit superficial or seems too fabulous to contact. The speaker doubts that they'll be able to impress Victoria though they agonize about her and cannot stop thinking about her. Then they build up the courage to message Victoria, which goes sort of well. They connect but it's strained because their personalities clash (with the grumpiness and the cactus). I'm a bit confused about just what happens in the last stanza

"Dear Victoria, please kill me with your words again."


-- this makes it sound like they maybe aren't talking now, which makes sense since the poem is written in past-tense. But still in the last three lines we learn the speaker has been hurt by Victoria, but think they could still heal? her or make her love them. That's desperately sad, because it seems like Victoria maybe doesn't care about her feelings based on the first stanza.

I wish we knew a bit more about what their relationship is at the end of this poem - did it fall apart? and if so, what exactly caused that break? I guess as a reader one could infer from the tension in the preceding stanzas that it was some sort of personality conflict, but it feels like we we've missed the actual break-up though have walked through their entire relationship. I'm not sure you have to clarify those questions, because there's still enough here to make sense of the story without them - but I just thought I'd note that I had a bit of confusion.

Phrasing

I liked your blend of conversational, intimate, and formal language. This poem was a bit reminiscent of your Romeo-Juliet poem. It seems like a Shakespearean romance/tragedy play is unfolding, and yet you keep it modern and easy to relate to. The second stanza and first stanzas are great examples of this. The way you describe how Victoria's vanity is fabulous - and I think everyone can relate to having that one friend that is super beautiful and knows it -- and yet there's this line, "You were pleased with their reverence." which amps up the formality and intensity of the image.

The blend of language and word choice is great & I think keeps the poem from feeling archaic or cliche because it's fresh and intense without being a whiny love poem. The lovely metaphors help with this too.

One phrasing suggestion:

"And yet I did - after I clicked. You replied to my message."

This line just was a bit too choppy and simplistic for me especially with the dash in the middle. I would take out "after I clicked" and replace it or just leave it out. Maybe even incorporate some dialogue into the stanza. It feels a bit too repetitive to the previous stanza too where it talks about clicking and messages and it's really hard to make describing someone scrolling through Facebook or staring at their phone sound engaging.

Imagery
My last suggestion if you're looking for areas to improve would be to try to introduce some more concrete imagery into the poem. Your first and last stanza have it with the trapped goldfish, but the other stanzas could use a bit more and I think that would heighten your metaphors that you use too, if there was more imagery attached.

-----
But overall, this is a very strong piece. Capitalization, word choice, punctuation, flow, themes, and pace are all very strong with really not much I could find to critique.


Well done! I look forward to reading your next piece!


-alliyah




Lightsong says...


Hey, thanks for the review and sorry for the late reply. :D

Victoria doesn't actually the MC; it's quite the opposite. I mean, I want to make it so that in the first stanza 'killing' is something bad, but then throughout the poem I hope readers can see that 'killing' is actually not bad. It's like one of the situation where you find someone nice and hot and you're just dying because of that, like they suck all your life energy and soul and keep them, you know what I mean? >.>



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Thu Feb 22, 2018 4:02 pm
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Charm wrote a review...



Hi! So I decided to give you a review lol so ennnnjooooyyyy (hopefully). This will be short because I think this poem is one of the best I've read on YWS and I don't have much to say lol.

Dear Victoria, you kill me twice. I am a goldfish,
content in swimming around my safe space,
a pool in a jar, when you take me out of it.
I suffocate and yet you shoot me while smiling.

I think line breaks give a better feel than just a simple period. So I would like to see you put a line break between "twice" and "I am a goldfish." But! If you don't want to mess with the even blocking you have going on, then that's fine and I understand. Personally I found that the first stanza was the weakest, not because it's badly written, but rather because it's formatted oddly. I think "swimming around my safe space, a pool in a jar, when you take me out of it" sounds weird. I think there needs to be something else instead of a comma between "jar" and "when" maybe a semicolon or something. I don't know how to fix this but I think it's a little weird, but I don't think it's a huge issue, unlike my next point. "I suffocate and yet you shoot me while smiling." I think this sentence shouldn't be seperate from "when you take me out of it" I think the period is too abrupt and odd. It just doesn't sound right to me.

You liked to be worshipped like a god
while shopping in the mall, striking poses
to those who wanted to capture your beauty
in eternity. You were pleased with their reverence.

I think the first and beginning of the second line of this stanza are also weirdly worded/formatted. The first sentence is perfect and great, but it sounds weird when transitioning to the second line. "You like to be worshipped like a god [line break] while shopping in the mall." The line break puts an odd break in this sentence. I think the first line is perfect so I'd like you to tinker with the second line maybe something like "You like to be worshipped like a god. We were shopping in the mall..."

I was a wishful girl. I knew I could send you a message
just by a click on your Facebook, but I shied away
from the mouse, afraid it would determine my fate.
Could this bespectacled stranger even interest you?

In this stanza I have a problem with certain words you used. The first one is "wishful". I don't think that's the right word. When I imagine someone wishful, I imagine a dreamer who is ambition and outgoing in a innocent way (but maybe I'm wrong--I'm probably wrong). I thought it was weird to put wishful and shy together. I don't see someone who is wishful being afraid of what happens. I think a wishful person would take the chance. I'm probably wrong, haha. My other issue is with the word "bespectacled". It's way to big and long and complicated of a word for the rest of your poem. It stick out and distracts the reader from the rest of the sentence and stanza. "Could this bespectacled stranger even interest you?" doesn't sound like something someone would say but instead it sounds like a word you would find in literature and with the rest of your poem I got this feel of storytelling and someone's thoughts. So I don't think the word fits, especially since in the next stanza you have that little comment "you said it."

And yet I did - after I clicked. You replied to my message.
You said my grumpiness was like your neighbor’s cat
and while you were allergic to it, you didn’t mind
hugging me because I made you smile (you said it).

One little thing, I'd change "you said it" to "you said that" because it's sounds more jabbing or more pain filled.

The final stanza is v v v nice and puuuurrrfect <3 I hope this helped. I rarely review nowadays so sorry if this review sucks. I love this poem so much I want you to know that. I only want to help you if I can! Love ya <3 I hope you have great day and good luck with that competition!




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Thu Feb 22, 2018 3:35 pm
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Charm says...



this is so so so good! i love the fourth and fifth stanza. it's also super relatable. it reminds me of my ex a bit (even tho he's a guy). i think this is my favorite poem of yours.




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Wed Feb 21, 2018 5:55 pm
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Thisislegacy wrote a review...



Legacy here for a review.

I love the lines "please kill me with your words again." and "no one can touch you without hurting themselves." They have so much meaning. Honestly, I feel like I hurt people when I love them so this helps me see that at least for some people they don't mind it as much. This poem is beautiful.





Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.
— Bernard Malamud