Pieces and Bits -Wattpad Poetry Awards

SESTINA: "The Losing Game"

In sullen days where sullen people cross

The streets, too busy to care what they miss,

She stands on bridges wondering whether

Or not to jump, then loses nerve and leaves.

 Amidst busy streets and crowded houses

She thinks that perhaps she’s made the wrong choice.

Although, really, there was no other choice.

Running her hand along the tarnished cross

On her neck, the starved children and ruins of houses

Make her see how much she really does miss

The innocence in the autumn leaves,

But hard times have left harsher weather.

None in this town believe they could weather

The storm brewing, that bleak and nearing choice.

Politics kicked up in the air like leaves,

And at the top, a man no one dared to cross.

Though, if he were to die, no one would miss

The tyrant and cheers would ring from houses.

Never having slept safe in their houses,

The people oftentimes wonder whether

This life is one that they could ever miss;

Their inability to make this choice

Serves only to make them more scared and cross,

And they give up, lying face down in the leaves.

Yet who can say they’d be able to leave?

Just go? Leave behind memories and houses?

Some say that bridge is one they’ll surely cross

When it is reached, one and the same whether

They make the first step themselves, or the choice

Is made for them.  Either way, what’s to miss?

Young strangers would come up and say, “Hey Miss,

Do you remember playing in the leaves?

Back when you thought you’d have a say, a choice?”

Asking on sweeter memories as they pass houses,

Even making talk about the weather

Until they reached the street and had to cross.

They all bear that cross, and it never leaves

A sore spot to miss.  Inside torn houses,

They wonder whether they made the right choice.