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
(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
