FOR DRAGONWRITER: Contest entry, by Ashley (A Star)

by Ashley in a balloon; the only way is up.

A Star

The way the water flows with her

Is the way the world shall follow.

A bright laugh is her enchanting lure

Her footsteps become hallow.

Her touch can bring days of ecstasy,

Her smile nights of imaginings.

She’s the heroine of our own phantasy,

The sword smiting all enemies in destructive happenings.

To many, her lovely appearance

Is nothing more than a flat image.

Hopes in meeting her become perseverance,

And hundreds travel to her city in competition.

When the gallant red carpet has been laid

For her sacred steps,

Lights flash, and for a look at her face money is paid,

A heavy burden of perfection she shleps.

Thirty minutes later, colorful lights fall upon the stage

And she’s revealed once again.

Her heavenly voice seeps in the air,

her invisible cage locked in.

Thrills cry out for her touch

For her money and fame

Her response was appreciative for the lust

But her feeling of betrayal untame.

After the show, she walks backstage,

Grabs a bottle, and

Doesn’t stop drinking

Until ever last drop was gone, every little inkling.

Her hallow steps turn shallow

As she wanders on the streets,

Her body and voice admired,

But her heart deserted, undesired.

She slams her glass bottle against the brick wall,

It’s edges shatter.

The glass turned red as she plunges it

Deep into her chest.

She forgets the ones that will miss her,

The ones that loves her best.

I screamed when I passed by that sad, dark alley,

Inked with blood red crime.

Trembling hands reached for her silky hair,

Untouched by the bloody mess.

Tears stream down my lonely cheeks,

A crushed dream in wounded distress.

My own beloved mother gone,

Because of a world of perfectionist press.

Note: This poem is about how the child admires and secretly wants to be like her famous mother, but also what it'd be like to lose her because of the other and her mother's own flaws, like always intensely leaning toward perfection.