The Poetry Marathon

Have you ever watched Aurora’s morning ritual?

How she flings herself across the sky to bring us the sun?

My morning ritual consists of flinging

My index finger through social media.

One app after the other.

I wonder how this brings me light.

Aurora is mother of the winds,

Conceived with father of the stars.

Each little blib of contact

Blows me in circles.

Everybody here looks so happy.

Their smiles mock me.

Why are they having fun without me?

Why don’t they like me anymore?

Will I ever be this happy without them?

Aurora is selfless in her task

Of showering this world with rays of gold.

I wonder how she can be so kind.

I like to call myself kind,

But I know I truly just want connection.

I want people to love me.

Tell me, if I were to spread my skin so thin

You could see the light through it,

Would I be someone worth spending time with?

The day I graduated from the group home,

They took me off the Prozac.

I wouldn’t say the world made a mockery of my breath the next day.

It was a gradual sharpening of the tongue.

I believed I was fixed.

I believed I could make the world my own if I simply wanted it enough.

Maybe, I just didn’t want it

Enough.

My name is Cameron Chiovitti, and I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I’m self publishing my second chapbook on July 2nd. It’s called Paint My Skin With Sweetness, and you can find it on Amazon and Barnes & Nobles.

I’m doing the half marathon for the first time, and I’m hoping it will help me with my next collection that’s already in the works.