# September Challenge: "5 Lines"



## Chesters Daughter

The prompt for this month's challenge, as chosen by Fats Velvet is: *5 **Lines*

You are free to interpret the prompt in any way you wish, though of course, site rules apply. If you are unsure of the challenge rules please read the 'stickies' at the top of the board.

We are continuing to allow optional anonymity this month. You may post your entries yourself, or, if you'd like to remain anonymous, you may PM your entry to me, *Chester's Daughter*. If you are posting anonymously, please indicate in your PM which board, public or workshop, you desire your entry posted on.

Kindly make sure your entry is properly formatted and error free before you submit. You have a *ten minute grace period* to edit your piece, but anything edited after that will likely see your entry excluded from the challenge. 

As usual, if you'd wish to protect your first rights, post your entry in the *workshop thread**, and post a link to it in this thread. Failure to do so runs the risk of your entry being disqualified.

Do not post comments in this thread. Any discussion related to the challenge can take place in the Bards' Bistro.

Now that the 'like" function is again blessing us with its presence, we respectfully request that you refrain from using it until this thread has been closed and the poll has been opened.

**This challenge will close on the 15th of September at 7pm EST. 
*


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## Chesters Daughter

*My Hands are Tied*

I'd whine
about a mere five lines,
but it would take me
at least ten stanzas.
Piece out.


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## toddm

*sidewalk*

a jumbled parade of passers-by
with legs scissoring, heads held high;
an endless dizzy circus show
of strangers I will never know
of strangers I will never know


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## Firemajic

*Abstract Beauty*

Blossoms from my garden,
stolen by the summer storm,
becoming nature's watercolor palette,
painting a mural of abstract beauty
on the canvass of my rain soaked lawn.


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## Nellie

*Endurance*

I sit
on pins and needles
as I wait for good news,
she will endure the procedure
family valor.


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## Gargh

*Help wanted*

It said
_Describe yourself _
_in five lines: what makes you tick, _
_what is the point, why do you live? _
She said, _I only need two words for this: I am._


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## Pidgeon84

5 Lines

What does 
one
even do
with 
5 lines


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## aj47

*Unbounded*

If I had five lines,
I could paint the Universe-
or my love for you.

With Time and Space left over-
words beyond the infinite.


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## Terry D

Friends
Sister
Mother
Father
Son
Lines hurt.


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## jenthepen

Five lines…
_Here lies_
_Your name_
_Two lines of dates_
to tell your birth and death,
and then a simple ‘_rest in peace’_
Is there no more to be said?

I’ve heard you laugh
and seen you cry.
In sunlit glade
I’ve touched your lips
with mine and heard you sigh.
I’ve shared your whispers
through the night
until the light of day.
I’ve felt your trembling heart
by mine, beneath the open sky.

Five lines!
Is that the sum of all your life?
As though you never felt the sun
or strived and struggled to be free.
As though you never fought or worked
or loved a girl like me.


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## mohawksavage

Mornings mist on the meadow
As the birds begin to sing
Sunlight warms my face
As a new day begins
The smell of flowers is bliss


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## Miles-Kirk

You broke my heart once or twice,
nothing left upon the thrice.
Trying to mend;
broke down on four.

The fifth,
your last.
You snorted,
I mourn you.

5 Lines is all all it took,
rest in peace,
oh dear son.


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## thepancreas11

The Celestial Being awoke,
Spread wide her arms,
And the Universe burst forth.
Then God said,
"Let there be Science."


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## midnightpoet

Promises

Delicate snowflakes, 
formed not to last, are like love,  
giving fleeting moments of joy
but often melt unhappily away, 
leaving promises unfulfilled.


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## escorial

The Staff

empty
garbage
before 
dad
flips


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## Ethan

The Stave
Beethoven, Bach and Mozart too,
Mahler, and Hayes knew what to do,
with just five lines and many riffs,
they shared with us of heavens gifts .
Through boundaries of time and space,
What wonders  given on lines of grace,
loaned to man by greater kind,
to free the spirit and restore the mind.


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## Fats Velvet

the pill


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## E. Zamora

*Runaway*

with the razor
used to slice
her thigh 
the lost child anticipating
oblivion cut

five lines
from the last of mother’s
stolen pills inhaling 
now she’s so 
gone

missing


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## Ariel

* That Old Moon *

The moon looks old and tired tonight--
like yellowed paper curling at the edges.
Worn thin and soft by all the lovers'
swooning gazes--the love letter sworn
too oft and longing for better days.


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## apple

*For Our Children*

Sparkle, silver spoon

let them taste the world 

like honey on their tongue

sweet bites of goodness

that fill them up


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## Megookin

Five lines encage me
Suffocating words and thoughts
that yearn for freedom from my mind
As I search for a loophole
Only twenty five escape.


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## PiP

*Inner Peace*

In paradise
Heaven has no meaning,
money no value.
Inner peace,
is the only currency of life.


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## Jeff C

*I love you*

You've crossed the line.
Not once, but twice.
Leaving me with a feeling of anguish.

But still I concede.
Hoping for redemption.


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## Pandora

*Bloodlines*

_Demons drown our love, burn the hope,

__leaving defeated strangers holding onto an everlasting promise._
_
They will not survive when we journey on._

_Together we will find souls learning and loving again  . . ._

_because we are blood and blood is one, forever free in union.
_


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## Mutimir

*Barriers*

Rules and regulations,
comply, they constrain.
Renegades listen not,
but desire only to entertain.
Bursting through critical barriers,
willed self-destruction, burned ineffigy.


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## Chesters Daughter

This challenge is now closed. The "like" function is now at your disposal.


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