Her Song

The crowd shivers. The piano plays.
Brought forth from pockets, hands raise.
Lighters spark. The fire glows.
Lips mimic words we know.

The meaning differs for one mother.
The lyrics move her like no other.
Her words lost. Her jaw drops.
On her daughter, her gaze stops.

They spent past nights in despair.
Now, hope, a breath of fresh air.
The melody that plays tonight,
Gives the daughter strength to fight.

Fight, although her taste will rot,
Hair will fall, stomach will knot.
Fight, although the chemo drains,
And fills her with foreign pains.

I wonder when did she last smile?
Genuinely, it has been a while.
Beating cancer is beyond rough,
My friend, I know, is strong enough.

I see her standing with the crowd.
I want to hug her, say I’m proud.
And her eyes, hopeful, glisten.
That’s why, to her song, I listen.

---

Mary Jane's writing obsession started in 7th grade (writing low-quality fanfiction). Later, she discovered how to develop her own stories, and now she’s in Professional Writing at Algonquin college to take her fiction to the next level. Oh, and she’s still a huge nerd.

Lies and Heartache

Photo courtesy of Pexels.com

My body was like a fire.

A wildfire.
That raged with emotions.
Burning everything that it touched.

On the inside, I was breaking.
On the outside, I was shaking.

He filled me with lies.
He told me I was pretty.
He told me that he loved me.
And I believed him.

I let him love me.
I let him have me.
All for what?
Nothing.

I gave him everything.
He was my first.
Kiss, Time, Love.

Photo courtesy of Pexels.com

My body was his.
My hopes and desires.
Even my damn dreams.
I saw everything with him.

A year passed.
Feelings drifted.
Lies were spreading.
I was blinded by a false emotion.

Time went on.
I could tell something was wrong.
But yet I chose not to believe.
While I waited for him.

He was with her.
Kissing her, hugging her, making love to her.
Everything he once did to me.
He grew tired and bored.

Trading me in for someone new.

In time I felt lost.
I felt un-pretty.
I felt useless.
He turned me into something else.

I never felt anger, pain, heartache.
Nothing like this before.
I was upset about feeling like this.
 

I was angry at myself.
I was angry at him.

---

Known to some as Mother of Cats, but others know her as Peyton a fun-loving geek, who has an obsession with Dragon Age, Overwatch, writing, and photography. An introvert who suffers from being socially awkward. But has a passion for reading, writing short stories, cuddling cats, and late night binge watching Netflix.

Ugly Things: A Collection of Poems

Golden

When walking today, I stumbled across

A golden heart

It beamed at me from the damp brown grass

How nice, how pretty

A perfect gold heart

I’ll take it home

I’ll shine it up

I’ll keep it forever

Won’t my friends be jealous

My perfect gold heart

How the sun touched it

How the earth held it

Offered it out to me

The little gold heart

Oh how lovely, how gleamy you are

What chance what luck

That I found you

How the light loves you

And I will too

My darling gold heart

I will keep you with me

I will carry you in my pocket 

Wherever I go

My golden heart will come along

Oh how happy I am 

How good you are

Too good to be true

Here, let me reach out for you

You cheerful gold heart

But what now?

It cannot be

The heart crackles to my touch

The golden paint comes away

It’s a piece of trash

How could I have known

Why didn’t I know?

My sweet golden heart

Is plastic

My dog is at my side, my companion

She sniffs that little heart

Once, twice

Then she pees on it

I shrug, we walk on

That stupid gold heart

I’ll try to forget

That perfect gold heart

Fresh Air

The air is crisp

My throat is cold

The match is bright 

My hands are old

I take it in

The smoke flows round

As I look up

My thoughts wind down

Now what I pushed for,

Hungered, chased,

Is in my hand

For me to taste

The satisfaction

May draw near

But never really completely

Here

What has begun

Can never end

And so my wounds 

Refuse to mend

You burn me so

You make me blind

And still somehow

You ease my mind

You’re always there

When I awake

And so the pain

I’ll gladly take

For it’s not here

Won’t ever be

And so I’d love

To poison me

Treasure Hunting

You said: let’s go treasure hunting

And so happily I went

We ventured through valleys and over great mountains

The sky grew bluer than blue can be

We helped each other over rocks and over rivers

Through forests dark and pleasing as your eyes

How they shone when you held me

We’ll find our treasure soon you said

We camped beneath trees great and old

So tall they were 

I feel so small I said 

You assured me I had the strength of all the trees

In night wild beasts came and tried to drag me away

You fought them off

You said: nothing can keep us from our treasure

And so we continued, we travelled across vast prairies

The dry grass beamed pure gold in the sun

You said: wait right there

You took my picture

And how happy I was to be beautiful as the grass, as the new day

Our journey had gone so long

One night in the mountains

A great wind came and blew our tent away

You said: this just won’t do, we’ll never find the treasure

I pleaded I begged surely we can’t be far

Surely our treasure waits for us

You agreed

But your eyes became flat as rocks

Still we kept on

We drudged through a swamp neck high

The sky became dark and I held onto you for my life

When a storm crossed our seemingly endless path

At long last we came to a grove which led us to a beach

I dug and dug, spraying sand 

My hands burned

But here it was

A smooth wooden chest, I pried off the lid

Heaps of treasure, gold and platinum and priceless gems

I gathered all that I could

I said: this is more than I could have imagined, help me carry it

But you were no longer there

And so I sat

With all my treasures

Too heavy to carry alone

---

Grace Mahaffy is a 19-year-old Professional Writing Student who has lived in Ottawa virtually forever. She enjoys visual art, music, literature, and spending quality time with her dog.