Isabella Ana Smith's poem "(at least) i can still Feel It"

Dear Family and Friends:

My granddaughter's poem has been selected as a finalist in the National Poetry Quarterly. The winner is determined by online vote. It would mean a lot us if you would shoot an email to vote@highschoolpoetrycontest.com with the title of Isabella's poem:
"(at least) i can still Feel It"

Thank you very much!
GranGoddessa and Isabella Smith

JUST POETRY!!! - Internet Voting

From justpoetry.org - December 29, 9:15 AM

 (at least) i can still Feel It



you broke me like a child dropping a

glass that shatters unforgivingly on linoleum

oblivious to the small pink palms

which press into sensitive ears at the sound



and i cleaned out all the promises we made like a broom

sweeping rhythmically over the kitchen floor

the raspy shht-shht-shht of strokes promising

to keep me safe from all your jagged edges



i tiptoed past any memory of you

never walking barefoot, always walking around

the place where you cracked open once and for all

centuries scraped by like dry wind on chapped lips



but every time i think it’s safe to set the soles of my feet

down around your aftermath

an invisible sliver of your memory

slips its way into my skin unnoticed



i freeze as my fingers go puppet-string taut

familiar pain shoots straight up to my heart and lodges there

and the crimson on my heel reminds me

that our broken pieces will never really disappear

Isabella Smith, CA, Ulysses S. Grant High School