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This one goes out to Seamus Heaney

This was part of a challenge from Heaney's HomePlace! I wrote it on the bus afterwards. They gave me three words and you had to make a poem out of them. My words were: edge, sun, and snap. The poem itself might be a wee bit dark! But do not fret. It is fiction and I really was just trying to find a way to connect these words and also make sure it still rhymes, because it was important to Heaney ("I rhyme to see myself, to set the darkness echoing"). Picture this as like a Goonies poem. I'll set the scene for you. You're stuck in a series of caves, searching for a treasure which no one has seen for hundreds of years that could save your pizza business which is about to be foreclosed by the bank (I was hungry when I wrote this, just go with it), but you've hit just about every obstacle along the way - ghosts, falling rocks, and a godawful villain - and are just about ready to give up. There's also this really creepy ghost that is just kinda standing on a cliff but not really doing anything, yet it seems she's following you. Spooky! Here is the poem now:


I’ve been pushing myself to my limits, just about to snap

In search of just one goddamn map

That will show me a way

Out of this cursed place

A woman stands near an edge

Almost, but not quite at the ledge

Seems as if she too is looking for a way

Out of this cursed place

This treasure isn’t real, I’ve been played for the fool again

Seems like this is it, this is my end

There! Right there I see it!

A glimmer of hope, a glimpse of the sun

My pace picks up, I begin to run

But as I’m sprinting, I realize the light isn’t real,

It’s reflections of jewels, red, purple, and teal

And just beyond them, the legendary treasure! It’s true!

I see the reflective gold in its bright yellow hue

I grab as much as I can and store it in my bag,

Wanting to return, I plant a flag

I pick up the treasure chest, and the ground gives way,

Leading me to a beach which is bright and happy and not at all gray, and at this point I know it, I know that I’ve won

Not a person can take this from me, not one

For I’ve finally found a way

Out of that cursed place




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