Title: Amnesty
Fandom: original poetry
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words exactly
Content notes: None
Author notes: This poem uses every challenge word, in order.
Summary: I Amnesty, or Poetical Asylum.



The Lost Hour:
an apt name for it.
Time suck
like the Bermuda Triangle.
You want to be Anywhere,
But Here you are, dying
in Stages.Thinking
of the million and Five Things
you would Do-Over,
given another chance,
At the Genre novel
that is your life.

Drag yourself up
from the muck like
that first not-quite-fish
evolving from the sea.
True Communication,
Self awareness
come later.You spell out
a Self-Portrait,
in the sweetened oat letters
of your Breakfast cereal.

Performance Anxiety makes you
Double your efforts to create
something meaningful for yourself.
A new Role.
Reversal of your own fortune.
To Win or Lose.
Old Friends may buy
Into this Mythology,
Calling you on the Wire,
Cliché as that sounds.

Secrets, shared
like a Borrowed Title,
Never returned,
from your old School library.
The crap you used to like!
Ghosts and Gore,
The shared Warmth as you
huddled together to read, Praying
for no Interruptions.

And then it ended.
Not one single, Solitary fight.
Just an Apology,
that the Season had started,
Making it time for the Masks
that hid the real you.

Elusive or Ephemeral, you
gave false Introductions.
Clever, sharp words, like Diamonds;
and Pearls, of nothing like wisdom.

The Other Side of the story
never gets accurately told.
This waiting, like Purgatory,
for something to happen.

Checking out their Horoscope for clues,
though you profess not to believe.
Lighting Candles,
Again, just for warmth.
It's Not What It Looks Like,
(although you say a little prayer
as you touch flame to wick.)
Games, of Comfort,
and delusion. Teaching yourself
what Technology and logic never did.
Dangling the lure
of future Kids,
the Silver Lining
of your golden lives.
Hoping you will not feel Stuck,
unable to recall those
steamy, sexy, Spicy times.
Fingers both arouse and Bruise,
Entertaining ideas you'd once
thought Backward.
Photo of the two of you,
Washing away the body paint,
Ending the Transformation,
but it's you who's changed.

No longer Trapped, Red faced,
the Teamwork in your relationship taking you
From point A, to point Z,
Sunny Weather, Seven days a week,
Resolutions made and kept:
learn from History.
Know what you've Lost and Found.

Their voice on your Telephone,
Rough with want.
You're longing to ask the Question,
worn through with daily Revision.

Imagining Jewelry being exchanged.
Clergy or Justices in their Element,
The two of you glow
like the Shiniest star,
Seen in Flight,
as you Fight
for the clearest view.

Drugs,
other people's children,
Monsters,
Even Health and Fitness,
Won't keep you
out of Hot Water,
or give your Family peace.

Instead, you brace yourself
in your Doorway,
solving Puzzles
in your mind.

Enemies may threaten.
Footwear causes beauty
and ugliness alike.
Exploration of the world we live in,
Music,both Sweet & Sour,
Memories that leave you Haunted,
Questioning all of your Choices.

You can't look at yourself
In the mirror,and see
Anything else but
Disaster.

Tell me, does it ever seem like
the only thing that's Contraband
is Kindness