Wow! We’ve been blown away by all of the great entries for June’s “Perseverance” themed poetry contest. There is still plenty of time to enter the contest, and it is open to anyone, any age, from anywhere. One one entry per contestant will be accepted. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will receive a surprise gift bag from Global Genes. You can enter here.
While we won’t be selecting a winner until the end of the month, we will be making the entries available live, each Friday right here on the site! Here are this week’s entries:
To Be Free
By Lauren Mathews
I’m trapped in a box and I can’t get out,
no matter how loud I shout,
I’m confused and scared,
boxed in tight,
it’s all dark,
where’s the light,
I pray for someone to find me,
but no one comes,
to be free,
I must realize,
there is always light at the end of a tunnel,
this is not goodbye,
I am a new person and with that I am fine,
because I know there’s always time,
I’m not alone,
and I never will be,
I have a home,
I have family,
I stand up and fight,
they will catch me if I fall,
there is always light,
I’ll break through that wall,
I can take on anything,
I can take it all.
____________________________________________________
The Laws of Physics Explained
By Carol Anne Bell-Smith
Newton’s third law
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction
The Action
A long flowy dress that catches in a disabled woman’s wheelchair
Will rip from the body before wrapping tightly around the wheels
trapping the woman, breasts thrust forward
completely immobilized and naked
The Equal and opposite reaction
Loud horns, cat calls, a woohoo
Large round mouths gaping as cars mount the sidewalk in distraction
Smartphones click promising YouTube posts
The Schrodingers Cat Paradox:
A conflict between the existence of quantum superposition’s and our real-world experience of observation and measurement.
A curious feline who winds himself through the legs
and now compressed breasts of the trapped disabled naked woman
will provoke a furious resultant reaction.
The feline is alive but yet should also be dead
from the double slit looks directed towards him.
A Harmonic Oscillator:
A system that, when displaced from its equilibrium position, experiences a restoring force proportional to the displacement.
Thus the larger the mass of the breasts,
the more they will agitate and oscillate
as the trapped disabled naked woman
struggles vigorously to free herself.
Neil’s Bohr’s Atomic Theory:
Electrons will revolve around an Atomic Nucleus at the center.
In attempting to extricate the trapped naked disabled lady,
many revolve around her discussing the situation,
poking and prodding developing various clever theories to free
her from her predicament without touching anything.
Sadi Carnot’s Second Law of Thermodynamics:
Heat cannot spontaneously flow from a colder location to a hotter location.
As the face of the trapped naked disabled woman becomes more and more red,
encouragement by the surrounding crowd of people will not dissipate said red faced embarrassment, conversely serving only to perpetuate its thermal intensity.
Georges Lemaître’s Big Bang Theory:
The universe originates from a single point expanding to infinity in a large thermonuclear explosion
In order to free the trapped naked disabled woman
someone must lift her breast to free the dress from the wheels of her chair,
while a second person must cut the remaining dress from the rest of her body
rendering her completely exposed for all to see.
Multiple expletives exploding from her center,
hands waving furiously, trying to cover everything simultaneously.
Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity:
Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared
When finally freed the now completely undressed,
red faced, screeching, disabled woman has persevered and
travels towards home, in her bra and panties
at an ever accelerating speed
expanding to quantum…
____________________________________________________
A Chronic Disease Poem
By Ellen Barnes
You look
And you see me
Smiling, and giggling
The determination
And the passion for living
But you don’t see the disease
The fear that’s slowly eating me
The war I constantly fight
In order to get thru one more night
But that war isn’t anything more
Than fighting an invisible enemy
One that shows no mercy
And one many don’t even believe
I don’t want to be this anymore
Fighting this invisible painful war
Feeling tired, feeling weak
Feeling scared, sometimes unprepared
The prescriptions and IV’s
The doctors and tests
I’m tired of it all I just want to rest
Living care free
Is what everyone wants to be
But I’ll be strong
Put my brave face on
Never giving up
I’ll fight for me
I’ll fight against this disease
I’ll fight for you
And the war you’re going thru
____________________________________________________
Guts
By Cath Hammond
I’ll tell you what gets me. It’s the
Courage of the child. It’s the
Hands-down iron-clad soul of that kid.
Ever
Undefeated. I know her. I see the
Clutching forward. I hear the
Strangled little moans and whimpers. But
She
Is still bang up for it. Swallowing back the
Treacherous sounds of complaint.
Busy busy busy.
She puts punch into the word
Tough. She is the child of my heart
All my pride and joy. Nothing like
Her. Guts
Like you’ve never seen, that kid. I see
The smooth little fists clench. The cheeks
Pale. And then it’s just pushed
Back.
Back to playing, climbing, reading, painting,
Riding, making a mess and pestering
That Poor Dog.
In the midst of all my fears for
The future. For her little life
I can see that this brutal, humiliating
Disease
Is giving her an incomparable gift. She
Is bombproof. My beautiful baby. Pain
Will not fell her. Disappointment does not claim
Her.
She is incomparable, indefatigable, unbeatable
Brave, beautiful and brilliant. My bookworm. My
Unstoppable force.
Love her.
____________________________________________________
Perseverance
By Julia Boonnak
My
son
climbs
mountains
every day. He
doesn’t know any
different and he doesn’t
have a choice. He hasn’t got
a big roar but a tiny little voice. He
finds life easier when it’s full of fun and
play. He shines like all children do and does it his way.
Rare
disease
families climb
mountains every
day. We are required
to work harder and be better
than our best. We learn to be
nurses, therapists, mentors, coaches,
there is no time to rest. We advocate for
research and we want it straightaway. We’ve
got each other to share with and you know what? We’re OK.
A
rare
global
community
climbs up mountains
every day. Roped to courage
up in front and fear pulls back the
rear. Never give up searching but the
end may remain unclear. Slice feet, cut legs,
draw tears you sweet but wretched pathway. You’ll
never take our hearts our hope and you’ll be beaten someday.
____________________________________________________
The Tide
By Anna Cann
Like the water smoothed pebble
Tucked away from the sea
I wait for the tide to wash over me.
But this kind of tide does not
Answer the moon,
It rushes me over, saying sleep now, sleep soon.
And I pause, I resist, for its early
Not the night,
But in the widest-eyed moment of
Sun’s daylight.
While others march fast
And sail that strong tide
I wait, rest and watch their forgotten vivid sky.
For I know time passes with
Each wispy cloud
And soon the tide won’t shout,
And barely whisper aloud.
The secret I hold is knowing
That tide,
My smooth pebble knowledge growing
Strong inside.
Experience I know
With every rushing wash.
Patience and strength my key,
The tired-tide has lost.
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