A recent poem I submited to a contest.

[Applespark]

I held you

You gripped to my soul
With your fingernails
those same nails that
Scrathced your rapist
And hammered in the lost add for your past
On the polls all over our neighborhood
I held you
As the meds clacked on the floor
As the ambulance lights
Splashed red over our walls
As you watered the lawn with your tears
As the 500 miles were between us as
You burned in yoru car
As you lay in the hospital each time
As you brewed your tea at a god~awful hour
Sleepless, lifeless, and in fear
I held you
As you held me
As I am




Copyright ©2004 Rose Fante

[Fierce_Flawless]

the abulance and the colors on the wall was my favorite part... the passion and suffering and desparation behind this is phenominal, definitely worthy of review.

phenominal.

[Applespark]

My mother has post tramatic stress disorder because of 17 years of rape and abuse by her father and brothers. As I was entering my preteen years all of this came up and it ripped through our house like a beast. I remember holding her as she would cling to me as if clinging to me would stop her from slipping into the past forever and she'd never see me again. SHe tried to overdose/ suicide....over 12 times. And we lived in a place that was near all of the things that happened to her so...it was not escapeable for her to remember flashbacks everyplace we went. But I stood by her even though we have our love hate mother doughter thing...I stood by her as a human and I love her for being human and for being a survivor. the last part about I held you as you held me as I am...is like that love for your child that is indescribeable you just love them and have no expectations on their being but that they just be and just are.

[skyfire]

beautiful...good luck w/ the contest

[peaceloveandmusic]

I enjoyed, i hope its succesful at the contest.

[natural23]

AppleSpark, Thank You.





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[Danishbuddha]

lovely work, hope it doing good in the contest

[Applespark]

it ended up on the first page in a book :)

[inbloom]

awww, apple, i didn't know your name is rose!! it's a very beautiful name. :)

and your poem is very powerful and emotional. good stuff. i hope to god the contest you answered wasn't at poetry.com. they fuck with you, man. they did it to me. i submitted two poems and they BOTH won some contest to appear in a book, and for like a year they sent me shit in the mail telling me that if i just payed them a fee of $50 i could purchase a copy of the book my poem was supposedly in, although i never agreed for them to use it, when they asked. and like, there was no way i was gunna pay $50 for ONE page in a book with my poem on it. buuuunk.

beautiful work, though. stick with it. :)

[Applespark]

Yeah they are a business and I know that but my mom has a lot of emotional petry on there so I really submitted it as a poem to her because I knew she would see it and tehn they wanted it for their book whickh I knew they probably would because the same reason you said...they are a business and they want your money for the publishing and the book sale..anyways I didn't send them back the paperwork with edits or anything so I didnt even knwo they would put it in still but they did. my mom just ordered some coppies on her own I wasnt goign to order them and there was my poem on the first page of the books. it was neat. but I know what your saying :) they are a good business though you have to admit.

[inbloom]

yeah, it is pretty cool to have one of your poems published, i will admit. but like, i submitted two poems, and they wanted me to buy two seperate books at $50 each, and i just wasn't down with that. lol. i didn't have the money at the time.

but, yeah i can see what you're saying. :)