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paper cranes.

wildfire

By Poppy Published 5 months ago 1 min read
Top Story - November 2023
29
paper cranes.
Photo by Danil Aksenov on Unsplash

I learnt the shape of you

From across a room

Memorised it in secret

Listened to your voice like rain

Breathed it in like petrichor

I pressed your flaws

Against my skin like tattoos

(Never to be changed)

Folded our memories like origami

Paper cranes lining my window sill

When I found out your heart

Was already moulded around

And entwined with another

I tried not to let the reality

Of it choke me

Tried to stamp out my love

As if it was only a flickering flame

Not a raging, relentless wildfire

I saw you and her across a room

Tried to erase thoughts of you

In the private of my paperless room

Hid my failings in public

Covered the tattoos

With longer shirtsleeves

Prayed my heart would

Grow around another’s

❀❀❀❀❀

Entries to my 1.2.3. Challenge close on the 25th at 12pm AEST!! Don't forget to write a poem for it!

Also please check out the start to my new series:

love poems
29

About the Creator

Poppy

‘Wasted Love' available to purchase here in paperback and eBook format.

Find me on:

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Outstanding

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Comments (25)

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  • ROCK 5 months ago

    Loved this so much I have read it now three times.

  • Justin Millette5 months ago

    Absolutely LOVE it!!! Now I'm like a child waiting for it's favorite show to make a new one LOL seriously I am waiting for your next one you have a way with words very talented and of course very intelligent 🤓

  • Tiffany Gordon 5 months ago

    WOW! That was absolutely stunning Poppy! Outstanding job!!

  • Test5 months ago

    Excellent effort! Keep up the superb work—congrats!s

  • ROCK 5 months ago

    There is nothing you write that I don't love. Next Mary Oliver?

  • Waseem Chem5 months ago

    great

  • And YES!! 😆… another well deserved Top Story! Looking forward to the next one 😉

  • Mackenzie Davis5 months ago

    “Listened to your voice like rain Breathed it in like petrichor I pressed your flaws Against my skin like tattoos (Never to be changed)” To breathe in a voice as if it’s petrichor is a truly beautiful image. It’s distant, like the lines before but says so much about the speaker’s feelings towards the “you,” that scent of refreshing sweetness. And then, it’s compared to the speaker’s wildfire love, a perfect complement of elements. This a spectacular piece, Poppy. Well deserved TS.

  • Melissa Ingoldsby5 months ago

    Truly amazing work

  • Donna Renee5 months ago

    ooooh, my heart! This is so touching and real.

  • Babs Iverson5 months ago

    Brilliantly written!!! Love it!!! ❤️❤️💕Congratulations on Top Story too!!!

  • Paul Stewart5 months ago

    Back to say, congrats on Top Story!

  • Cathy holmes5 months ago

    Wow. This is excellent. Congrats on the TS

  • Grz Colm5 months ago

    A Wonderful, heartfelt poem filled with emotion. Great work Poppy! 👏😔

  • Omgggg, this is the story of my life! It's been 10 years and my feelings have not faded. Loved your poem!

  • The tragic ubiquity & relatability of unrequited love.

  • Jay Kantor5 months ago

    Hi Poppy - You always Pop out the memories for me. I was the incorrigible folded paper-note passer across the classroom - evidence by my name inscribed on a Principal's office chair. 'j'

  • Sara 5 months ago

    I read this so many times… I feel like we’ve all been there, at least I have - wanting someone that will never be yours but you expressed it so masterfully!!! Thank you!

  • Andrew C McDonald5 months ago

    Poppy, you bring a level to metaphor that is astounding. This is lovely, relatable, and extremely well crafted. Great job.

  • E.K. Daniels5 months ago

    Beautiful, Poppy. Heartbreaking and relatable. “Folded our memories like origami” brings back such a vivid memory. A powerful metaphor.

  • Test5 months ago

    Your words always move me deeply, on top of this being an exquisitely crafted and beautiful piece, the literary merit of this (and many of your pieces) is so solid. Thank you for this beautiful yearning piece.

  • Mother Combs5 months ago

    Beautifully written

  • Hannah Moore5 months ago

    I love the brittle sharpness of the paper folds next to the sinuous, muscular bends of the heart of the other.

  • Beautifully written… hoping the ending comes true.

  • Paul Stewart5 months ago

    Damn, Poppy! This just drips beautiful...pain...that longing, wanting....unrequited love that seems to get us at some point or another. Love the whole idea of origami and folding around hearts...that's genius...and the tattoos of the other's flaws...just love the imagery so much. Always so creative and so emotive. Well done on this piece of painful, pretty art.

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