Starfish Girl | Teen Ink

Starfish Girl

August 31, 2009
By Bristow BRONZE, Chesapeake, Virginia
Bristow BRONZE, Chesapeake, Virginia
3 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Dreams for me were summer nights,
chasing you around the fire
as the sky drew dark,
giving it palpable fingers that
clung desperately to our skinned knees.
Laughter had its own color then,
that glowed lazily mid air with fireflies
and the boring upper class chatter
of crickets’ legs.

You were the stain left on my skin
long after we had said our last goodbye.
An ugly, discolored thing to remind me
of every naive thought wasted on you, which,
even scrubbing at it with steel wool
could not take back words already spoken.

Tuesday nights left me huddled in corners,
holding tightly to my mute violin
as tear drops fell upon silent strings.
The only sound I could ever pull forth
from her patient lungs was a shriek that
could make bodies shiver and piano wire snap,
a song not of larks but of crippled hands.
I tried playing a song backwards once,
to see if it might make something beautiful,
but the subliminal messages told me otherwise.

I, myself, had become a stain
of which I could no longer remove,
set peacefully among coffee and cheap attempts
at eradication with fingernail polish remover.
In the carpet I could see every old memory
set against the dancing stars and salamander tails,
and I couldn’t cry, because
I had wasted my tears on Tuesday.

But sitting on the rooftop, watching
fireflies flicker and crickets play
the worlds smallest violin-
wondering why I can’t be that beautiful-
I can still see the remnants of your footprints
In the clouds, and your voice on the breath of
the wind, still calling-
Starfish girl, crawl away from your rock!

But as clingy as I am,
I can’t follow.
I hope one day you’ll learn to move.


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This article has 3 comments.


on Jun. 12 2013 at 6:32 pm
Don't you acknowledge that it is the best time to get the home loans, which would make you dreams real.

on Dec. 19 2012 at 7:35 pm
AlwaysAntlers SILVER, Kingsport, Tennessee
5 articles 0 photos 72 comments

Favorite Quote:
“Don't forget - no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.”
― Charles de Lint, (from his book,The Blue Girl)

This poem really captures the feelings of someone whose friend or loved one has grown apart. I think you did an amazing job, keep writing!

on Sep. 12 2009 at 1:29 pm
NorthernWriter, Fargo, North Dakota
0 articles 0 photos 326 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Only dead fish swim with the stream"

This is very beautiful! I love how you mention the violin part. As a former violinist, I always played the violin when I felt the same way you described in your poem! It uses such expressive words and has "substance!" Keep up the good work!