The Poetry Marathon

24 hours of ripping your heart out

Yes, you read that right, readers. I just spent the last 24 hours writing, you guessed it, 24 poems. It’s this wonderful yearly event called The Poetry Marathon. I participated again this year, and while I’m exhausted now, it was totally worth it. Brace yourselves for more poetry in the weeks to come, but today I leave you with these words below. Stay strong, and happy reading!

Jen

The Beacon 

Someday, she will die, this woman I know. 
She is a star amongst those of us
who attended camp together so long ago,
a beacon of light, guiding us
all the way home, night after night.

She has a following,
but she doesn’t seem to know it.
She is a goddess, a sage,
a ray of light played with in the lighthouse
as we all struggle through rough seas.

In the beginning 
we were on sacred ground.
We all remember our
horse show ribbons and
awards won for mucking stalls at dawn.

Those coveted crystalline horse heads
to put on our shelves so we wouldn’t forget.
Stolen ice cream in the night with her,
that troublesome joker
full of delicious wickedness in the best ways.

I am of the age now, though, 
where people start to get sick,
where birthdays are painful,
and we are all forced to realize
that these might be our last years.

The best years since back then,
when learning about what it meant
to be a woman amongst girls,
when learning that it was okay
to harbor a broken heart. 

She was the military nurse
singing us to sleep
with odd lullabies
while the bombs dropped 
just outside the tent.

All it took was one look at her face
to see love and joy and courage there,
to see her open, magical being.
The perfect way to go into the dark or light,
whichever one it turned out to be.