Tap, tap
knock the hammer harder,
grip it tighter
***** a bolt over here,
send a little love over there
Polish it smooth,
sand it softly till like its new.
See her brighten up,
smile in that way you love,
when she sees her birthday gift

It was a tendril of fire
Too hot to touch
Provoked the fire,
it was quite a shock.
Her flashing eyes shone-
"How dare you!"
she shrieked.
and slammed down, onto your head-
('You can never earn my mercy' she thinks!)
-with a slate.
Crack!

"Try and try again"
didn't work
this time.
Or the next...

Shake your head, rub your eyes
You'd regret angering the fire, cause
it laid you out supine,
cause
that was the moment you
fell in love,

Gilbert
              Blythe.

I have a friend
with struggle spelled in her eyes
tears that leak,
drip,
drip-
ing down to
her stomach
is flat-

Bony are her elbows
wobbly knees
and ankles.
She runs day and night,
screams rebound across the sea.

I have a friend called
An. Ne.

She can be in
you
She can be in
me

A dripping branch
dipping into a
swirling pond
admonishing the
blushing pond lilies

My name is pup
and when I sleep
inside a sock
its yarn I eat

I open my eyes
the sun is up!
I eat more string
My name is pup

You poured it--
shoved it into my gasp,
--my throat,
yet
why is it that
you're weeping
over me,
me who's now asleep?
You never could hurt me directly.

When I come back,
don't expect me to
run back into those dead-end arms.
to: My friend

Dear Edward,

[When]
In Search of Lost Time[,]
[Try} Looking Through the Glass Of Mice and Men

Anne of Green Gables
'Knew Why the Caged Bird Sings

[While] The Great Gatsby
[had]
Great Expectations
[in]
A Tale of Two Cities

[T'was]
Steel-heart[ed]
[but]
Insufferable

Ida B.
[friended]
Jane Eyre,
Emma,
Rebecca,
Matilda,
Heidi,

Robinson Crusoe,
Frankenstein,
Dracula,
Ulysses,
Pippi Longstocking,

Othello,
Hamlet, [and]
Sherlock Holmes-
[and?]
The Catcher in the Rye

Something Wicked This Way Comes[-]
I've Been Told There'd be Cake
[but alas, too late-]
Things Fall Apart
As I Lay Dying

...

Far From the Madding Crowd
Tender is the Night

The Grapes of Wrath
[is found when]
Looking for Alaska
[with]
The Fault in Our Stars[...]
[a.k.a.]
Romeo and Juliet

To **** A Mockingbird
[thy needs a temperature of]
Fahrenheit 451

[One more thing-]
Pride and Prejudice
[is]
Deathless

[Okay, fine, more than one:]
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
[was at]
The Last Book Party

[so were the]
Invisible Monsters
[and]
The Lord of The Flies[.]

[In the]
Dying of the Light[,]
Divergent
[and]
Breathless[,]

[emerged]
The Lightning Thief

...

[Ultimately, in the end]
[strikethrough "And Then"] There Was None


Love,
Stargirl

I bit down
hard
the chocolate
seeped
a thick syrup
trickling along
-side a river dam

you feel
a rich explosion of rich severe cacao

I found her.
She's hiding.
She's in the halls
of the greats.
She's got the same spark
the same confident glint in her eye.
But where's that bright smile?
The skip in her walk?
The fizzy hair bands had shrunk
shrunk down
to two.
Two is better than one.
But she's alone,
without you.

Come back home

I see
myself in
the gentle sheen, where a pale figure stares
and beams
back at me

(cue: "i am confusion")

The air kissed my nose
reached out to catch falling dreams-
slipped through its fingers

Creeping on me

was your dream

it wasn't my choice;

yet I willingly
agreed.

A hundred scattered pieces of paper,
a mist of inky blackness,
and a lure to blast out of one's comfort zone
can launch oneself into

history
a rascal and his white picket fence,
fairy-tales,
or an AR monstrosity of reality,
a monster lurking maze,
a camp for half-bloods,
or
a school of witchcraft and wizardry.

But nothing
is like home.

Laying back on the soft grass,
I whisper your song.
The clouds are fluffy and white,
the blue skies are peaceful and bright.
The picture of paradise.
You wouldn't know
that
someone is slowly dying
right there.
Where?
Under the tree.
But-
Yes,
That's me.

A lopsided smile,
a twinkle in his eyes.
Towering stature,
with his messy curls shining in the light.
A hint of teasing
in every word that he spoke.

But
you sure missed the softness of
those hazel eyes,

   Anne
Shirley-
                       Cuthbert.