A Naïve Teenager’s Testament

Bloodied striped blankets cradle the innocents’ eternal pain,
The world, my distant target, pierced with darts of hopeless aim,
Us “immature” youth, with fractured minds, discarded in shame,
Yet the judge mimes on about peace treaties and the law in vain.

Mankind shall shoulder blame when the raging fire claims,
The forests, the icicles and the graves that await their names.
How foolish to strive for survival while arrogance reigns,
The audacity to speak of faith while praying on frozen remains.

Dear father, does it not unspool your gravest fear and despair,
When the gavel’s unstoppable echo deepens the gray in your hair?
A storm of banknotes engulfs the stamped uniforms I wear,
And the unpatriotic poems I write when choking is the air.

I eulogized for foaming rivers while smoke stained velvet chairs,
I forged medicines for hollowed bodies while congress only stared,
I kicked the iron curtains, cursing the hypocrisy that put me there–
Someday, I shall vanish; the world that birthed me will not care.

Death will solemnly sigh, seeing the striped blanket where I lay,
My father’s vibrant eyes remind me of all the dreams stolen away,
So I stitch back the scarlet seams to honour the souls that they betrayed,
Until, among the forgotten void, my rhymes and I shall decay.

Poem written by Hamnah Bukhari (First Place)

Safe place?

Her eyes are like a river of gold,
A sight that will never grow old,
The ethereal beauty poets break over,
Frantically writing words till none are leftover.
Smile so bright, blinding the sun,
Energy so blissful and effortlessly fun,
But lying underneath the surface
Is a pretty lady that never knows her purpose.
Her voice holds a melody so pure
That I tried to yell was the world’s cure.
She had the elegance and grace you can’t ignore,
Skin of diamonds shining,
Makes the stars start aligning.
But are you hiding, pretty lady?
I watch as I could not save her,
Whispered wars and horrors stir,
Bound, a silent curse making her blur.
Day 5,844
She sat on the shelf more than she could endure.
What a pretty doll she was to me,
But I know she longed to be free.
Glorified safety walls stuck by her side,
Her eyes welled up with crystal tears.
She stopped herself, afraid of a tide
Oh, but how long can you hide?
My lady, oh my lady, how can I stop you from fading?
Do you even know what you’re so desperately evading?
Gloomy sky floods the room
Pretty lady has been taken to her doom
Don’t dare think it’s any sort of Knavery,
Only she has fallen to the hands of slavery.

Poem written by Leen Mohamed Samy (Second Place)

Lacquer Over Splinters

The disembodied voice said:
“If you don’t expect it, you can’t be disappointed.”

I nodded like a fool and lacquered my wounds
with gloss so thick it cracked when I breathed.
Plans are cheap when hope is costly.

I planned to want nothing.
To sand down my ribs until the bone shone pale,
a polished, useless ornament for a life I never got to choose.
I planned to answer your silences
with my own, colder ones.

You sent meaningless kindness stitched in rough thread
I wore it badge-like until it bled.
You carved your love in the walls with blunt nails,
I painted over it in shining coats,
a museum of things I’d never touch.

“Smile, and it won’t rot you,” the voice whispered.

But even lacquer peels under the wrong weather.
Even marble shatters when the veins grow too wide.

I was never your masterpiece.
I was your unfinished thing,
your “maybe if” you left gathering dust,
a child painted in colors you didn’t stay to name.

I packed my plans in a box of wet promises,
and set it afloat on a river you would never bother crossing.
I shut the door before you could ask if it hurt.
I kissed the floorboards goodbye with my cracked lips.

Poem written by Nadeen Assaf (Third Place)