The Poetry Marathon

The soft flapping of the fragile wings,

As the butterfly hovers over flowers,

Scares me more than most things.

What keeps me up late at odd hours,

The incessant noise coming to an end,

As it’s overcome by other powers.

The flimsy membranes sure do bend,

With a careless whisk of a hand,

It lies broken and unable to fend.

In shock, the person does stand,

As the creature falls to pieces.

For the act wasn’t cruel; unplanned.

It’s why my anxiety increases,

Every time I spot a butterfly.

Hanging on a thin thread my peace is.

Note: The above is a terza rima poem, following the rhyme scheme ABA BCB CDC DED

Started off with me pulling at my hair roots,

Cursing my friend for asking me to watch it,

Head strong and arrogant protagonists,

Irritating slowly gave way to endearing,

Time was all it needed to grow on me,

Till I couldn’t go long periods without it,

Simply the best sitcom I’ve seen.

Consistently dealing with difficult issues,

Reaching out to play my heart strings,

Entertaining me but giving me a safe space to,

Experience everything on the screen,

Kaleidoscopic in the many emotions it made me feel…

Note: The poem is an acrostic poem in which the first letter (or syllable, or word) of each line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The poem is on a sitcom called ‘Schitt’s Creek’. If you haven’t watched it, watch it. 

One of the only times the world came together,

To accomplish tasks they couldn’t otherwise,

Was not in the name of humanity but laughter.

It wasn’t to call the names of Gods to invoke them,

Not the times they came together to save each other from peril,

But when they decided to prove a point.

The dusty road leading to the middle of a desert,

Looked over and protected by the Gods in the skies,

A vast open place shrouded in mysteries and absurd claims.

But, alas! A call and an awakening of the simple people,

To join the cause of the a few unread populace,

They can’t stop all of us now, can they?

A modern myth that travelled faster than any before,

Even sending the post to those addressed under rocks,

A punchline that was coming for quite a few years now.

Conspiracy lore was the only thing that breached the army base,

Though a few managed to get to the gates of the ET home,

The world watched on as we tried to raid Area 51…

On the darkest of days,

When it seems there can be no light,

A smile on someone’s face can be,

Everything you would ever need.

Right from your chest,

Taking up your entire breath,

But giving you more air to breathe,

Easing the worries of your mind.

In the worst of all times,

Especially when told a no,

The best medicine of all,

Live, love and?

Note: Nitrous Oxide is laughing gas

The unleased dog ran around free,

With unconcealed, uncontrolled glee,

New human he found,

Pushed him to the ground,

What a disloyal dog was he!

Note: The poem is a limerick (8,8,5,5,8 syllables; 1,2,5 rhyme; 3 & 4 rhyme)

Without you my dear, I am nothing and no one,

You made me the person that I am today,

Reminding me of who I eventually want to be,

Without you, I am carcass waiting for the vultures.

As I smell the acrid stench of your body burning,

So do my hopes and dreams I had for my future,

A broken arm, yet I’m still feeling phantom pains,

Your passing is not an easy toll to bear, my dear.

I will always beg and crave for you with every molecule,

A brave soul who didn’t hesitate to stand up for us all,

To everyone who needed it, so just and fair,

I will always miss you, my basic human rights…

Note: It is an elegy that was inspired because of the overturning of the Roe V. Wade bill in the US yesterday which ends the constitutional right to abortion. 

“Truth or dare?”, they screamed at the top of their lungs,

I always picked ‘dare’ lifting my glass above the crowd.

Nothing could possibly hold me back, could it?
Always the life of the party, the centre of the hubbub,

Tendrils of energy blooming off of me to every lone soul here.

I’m game for anything and everything, any and every time,

Don’t hesitate to be the first of the lot to mark the path.

Why should this time be any different than the last,

For a tiger is true to its stripes and so will I always be.

As I stumbled around the place, absorbing the attention on me,

They screamed at the top of their lungs, “Truth or dare!”

I told you I’m game for anything and everything, any and every time,

No one doubted what it meant when I always chose ‘dare’,

That I didn’t have to lie and look them in their eyes.

So I had to take it when they all gave me the biggest of all dares,

What was I to do but stab him there?

Note: This is a Gigan- which has 16 lines, consisting of a couplet, a tercet, 3 couplets, a tercet and another couplet. The 1st and 11th and the 6th and the 12th lines should repeat.

If I’d known what I was saying yes to,

On the day I chose this fork of the road.

I would have said yes as soon as I could.

Yes now and a million more times.

I found in all six of you not just friends,

But I found the warm comfort of family,

Of being able to be completely myself,

And still be accepted for who I really am.

The feeling of free falling but not the fear,

Of gravity vanishing as I reach the darkest of depths.

Pulling out of the shroud, things I didn’t know,

All the while knowing you’d still hold on to me.

Being able to cry on your shoulders,

Oh, your strong shoulders that can hold the earth,

Being able to laugh and hear yours harmonising,

Knowing my smile is mirrored on all of your faces.

Where I am happy not just for me but all of you,

Because y’all make me so happy, every day,

Forcing me to fight for just another minute,

Trusting I can get through whatever is getting to me.

So thank you for being my kin through ‘kin selection’,

I swear, it’s not just through ‘mere exposure’ because of ‘proximity’.

If I had everyone to choose from for this journey,

I know I would still choose each and every one of you.

Not just helping me battle the demons I’ve been fighting,

But for helping me grow and change and be better because of you.

Oh, my babies,

‘The sky could be falling, as long as you’re next to me,

I got everything, everything, everything, everything.’

Note: This poem is for my dear friends I met in college and I’m so insanely grateful for and who I love so very much and would do anything for <3

Another Note: I did my degree in psychology and sike is slang term for “psych”, which is short for “psyched out”. The prompt was to choose a picture from my gallery.

Always been someone who stays in the moment,

My friends grounding me to the present if I stray too far.

Preparing for the next battle that comes my way and not,

Think too far in time and tire of controlling.

But sometimes it’s a pleasure to dream of a land,

In a faraway queen-dom that I would one day arrive at,

A future worth all the hard work put in the path.

So hold my hand and I’ll take you there…

It’s a cold morning with the sun hiding behind clouds,

A calm blue colouring the space we call the sky,

Birds chirping calmly as they go about their business,

The smell of petrichor signalling the looming rains.

Your feet hit the ground with a sense of purpose,

As you walk around trying to tie all loose ends,

The soft smell of the sea wafting up to where you’re sitting,

As you hear the patter of paws of the dog you call yours.

You bend down to their height not caring of the sand down,

And they launch themselves at you with all that they’ve got,

You wonder if it’s the strength of the love that you share,

Because, oh, you love them so much and you know they love you too.

Soft music, the kind you like, is playing in the background,

And the smell of your favourite dish reaches you,

There’s laughter pouring in from all the sides,

And you’ve achieved everything you could possibly want.

As another year with your dog goes by,

You sit down to do some reminiscing of the good old days,

That was today, Of the memories that were only yesterday,

For you’ve lived through everything every day has to offer you…

“Where do you think God is?”, he asked her laughingly,

As he moved to rest his chin on his folded arm on the couch.

She sighed and said, “You have until my nails dry for this talk.”

“I think God is the magic of all things that make them real”,

Her eyes trailed the imperfect painting of the ceiling as she answered.

“God is probably in the words that make an author feel light,

The same words that make a reader feel heavy with emotion.”,

She said as she moved her finger on the spine of the hardback.

“Probably in the knitting my grandma did to make me this”,

He says as he runs a hand over the soft cloth of his sweater.

“God definitely is a part of the sunflowers in a green grass field!”,

She said, springing up as if to emphasise her point, continuing,

“Oh! And in the oak trees of the dense foliage of the Amazon forests”

“What they say is true, isn’t it”, he joked, handing her a wine glass,

“You do find everything in the depths of the Amazonian Jungles”

“In all seriousness”, he droned, “God is probably having a ball in space,

Away from all the chaos when humans sprung into their creation,

What with guns in children’s satchels and blood on the pavement.”
She shuddered, standing to reach for the cheddar cheese on the counter,

“God is probably just a belief that keeps us hoping for a better tomorrow.”

Note: The poem was supposed to use the highlighted words.