2010 MONTGOMERY COUNTY
YOUTH POETRY CONTEST

10-12 GRADE RUNNER UP

intheendiamalone
by Bailey Higgins

1:
send in the canaries to test the caverns of my chest;
my heart is dangerous. I tried to call in the saints,
but they're too busy to answer my prayers, and oh,
where is god when you need him the most?

2:
doctor says there's a rattle in my spine and an
emptiness in my brain; I fill the spaces between
my bones with sticks and stones so that nothing
will ever hurt me, but I can't stop the ache in my
jaw from keeping all of the words inside.

3:
when the roof caves in I'll be sitting beneath it, and
nothing will touch me because my walls are too strong.

4:
my night knows nothing but its mares, and there is
nothing beautiful in my dormant mind, just ghosts and
monsters and reapers come to sing me back to sleep,
back to precious precious sleep.

5:
I buried my lungs beneath the water, and they will
drown alone.