Lost Girl (What Miyaka Knows)

There is no shortage of people ready to point out what they feel is my place. Every flaw of mine is thoroughly dissected and explained, as if I were not already fully acquainted with all of them. It is then I run to lose myself in the pages of a story. I touch my lips to a well of words, take them deep into my body until they are part of me. Then I carry them back, alive with their power to remember I am the creatrix of my own tales.



A hard world demands
me to break. I refuse to.
Saved by strange magic
in my paperback heroes,
I claim my wings and fly.

Song Choice: Itooshii Hito No Tame Ni

Da' Notes: This poem was created as a response to an idea Magaly Guerrero put forth in a recent blog post, Trinkets and Armor: What's Your Passion? Drawing inspiration from a wise old woman, she asked us to share the things that we're passionate about or that soothe/ help when things feel a bit bleak. Reading of course was one of my first, and remains among my dearest comforts. If it were simply about reading, I might have gone with a poem about Anne of Greene Gables (I probably will write an Anne themed thing someday). But there is also something magical about writing too, about being the force creating the world around you. And so to convey that in aspect, I decided to play around with inspiration from one of my favorite anime/manga series, Fushigi Yuugi, where the heroine, Miaka, literally goes inside the world of a book, and her choices drive the way the story turns out. This piece is also linked up to The Tuesday Platform at Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads.

By Rommy Cortez-Driks

Returning the Favor

Don’t cry for the kid I was.

He was weak. An old man

had to teach that kid

his eyes wouldn’t be dried

by caring hands,

and his skin needed to be trained

to be harder than the fists that hit it.

I made my own lullabies

from the cracking of skulls,

the stomping of boots,

and cries for mercy.

I made lesser things

scream the pain I didn’t allow

myself to show, peaceful

until the next time anger howled

in my brain, demanding prey. 

(i can’t punch hard enough to save her)

Heaven gave me hell.

I’m just returning the favor. 

Song Choice: Behind Blue Eyes by The Who

This poem was inspired by the prompt (I created!) over at Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads: The Villain Speaks. I chose Turk, the Neo-Nazi character from Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult. The poem also borrowed inspiration from a line spoken by the villain from one of my favorite animes, Nakago from Fushigi Yuugi ( "I'll have my revenge against the heaven which has only given me hell"), who, when I thought about it, had a fair bit in common with Turk, both being hurt children who grew up to do terrible things as a way to deal with their pain. This poem is also linked up to Poets United Poetry Pantry 349. 

By Rommy Cortez-Driks