# Anonymous June Challenge: “Cowardice”



## Chesters Daughter (Jun 1, 2020)

*IMPORTANT NOTICE: We've a new update to the rules. Henceforth, kindly refrain from using the "like" function, or offering critique on any of the entries, UNTIL OUR WINNER IS ANNOUNCED. We are implementing this policy in an effort to protect anonymity as well as to spare our entrants the agony of being unable to respond to any critique they may receive for what could conceivably seem like eons. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

*As previously announced by Gumby, we've updated the *challenge rules*. Henceforth, all submissions will be anonymous.

*Please remember that in submitting an entry you are obligated to cast at least one vote in the poll. Failure to do so will result in your entry being disqualified.

*The prompt for this month's challenge as chosen by andrewclunn is: *Cowardice

Your entry must be submitted anonymously and therefore should be PMed to me, Chester's Daughter, so that I may post it for you. Please be sure to indicate in your PM on which board you prefer your work posted, PUBLIC or SECURE. I am responsible for linking all entries posted on the secure board to public board.

***VERY IMPORTANT*** Kindly make sure your entry is properly formatted and error free before you PM it to me as you will be unable to edit your work once I have posted it. If your work requires a disclaimer, please inform me in your submission PM.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT ANY ENTRY POSTED DIRECTLY TO EITHER BOARD WILL RESULT IN THAT PARTICULAR WORK BEING DISQUALIFIED, BUT YOU WILL BE PERMITTED TO SELECT ANOTHER WORK TO ENTER ANONYMOUSLY THROUGH THE REQUIRED CHANNELS. 


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



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


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## Chesters Daughter (Jun 7, 2020)

*A Flight to the Abyss*

broken arrow-
feathers in the wind
fear unchecked 

let me drown in the mud
rather than face the demons
that crucified my pride 

shriveled heart-
buckling knees 
trembling fingers 

I cry in the wilderness 
for those that I have forsaken-
a thousand deaths I die
for the faithlessness of my acts--
the facts of my deceit will forever haunt me 
as I curl up in a fetal position
shivering and shaking the night away---


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## Chesters Daughter (Jun 14, 2020)

*High Wire*

snapshot
suspended skies
frozen time
shooting smoke
tethered flame wreathed fireflies
exploding shattered 
cascading crackling colours
collapse down thru heavens inky blackness
bursting burning urging surging blossoms
brief bright blazed wonder
through fractalled tears I ponder
vital dizzying gravity
nothing excites me
charging elemental electricity
nothing new to see

below
yawning chasm of indifference
torrid torrent of ambivalence
a wrought iron single span catapult
a perch, salmon leapt vault
I teeter, stood like Christ the Redeemer
handrail tightrope artist walker
scrawled drawled head crushing air pressure
tick tock crocodile clock
Hooks one true last adventure

a step
swallowed swan dived gannet plunge
trapeze spun tumbled, flaming circle lunge
hoop jumps, hands release, flight, faith I snatch
I reach, I fall-fly, wanting somebody to...


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## Chesters Daughter (Jun 15, 2020)

*Speechless*

Restocking shelves: mayo, pickles, and jam
Door rings as she walks in
Long legs and lashes in daisy dukes
amber eyes and olive skin
The curve of her walk as she goes straight
Her hips' hypnotic sway
No waisted movement in her waist
as she walks up to me
"Where do you keep the pickles?"
Her lips half smirk half pout
"I... ummm... I..." I stutter nervously,
"I think we might be out."
Her laughter sudden and uncontrolled
Frozen where I stand
She reaches out toward me;
grabs the jar in my hand
Flashing a smile she turns to go,
but looks back as she leaves
Silently I stare, but in my head,
I scream, "I’m Steve!"


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## Chesters Daughter (Jun 15, 2020)

*A Coward’s Solution for Unpleasant Recollections*

I walk the shoreline
at breaking dawn
on a crisp
late winter morn,
numbed to my knees
by frigid brine,
hoping to freeze
my overtaxed mind.

Passive lips of tide
kiss my steps
and quickly hide
every trace 
I’d been there,
each grain of sand
restored with care.
Tracks of my lone
intrusion erased; 
the sea always rights
what's been displaced.

How I wish the sea 
as company 
everywhere I amble
for then there'd be
no history
of missteps taken 
so senselessly. 

I so abhor treading
this beach alone
seeking to exile
mem’ries
etched in stone -
indelible
for eternity,
forever consuming
inner harmony - 

if only my memory
were made of sand
then unwanted footprints,
upon demand,
would be effaced by
my certain hand
leaving only those 
I can withstand.


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## Chesters Daughter (Jun 15, 2020)

*Reckoning*

Will what I have not written, 
be the void which groans for me 
on Judgement Day? 
The Book of Life be blank
of my words? 

Only a Word 
can fill it. 

Crippled things I made 
leech my ankles 
hungry for a name. 
Glancing around
I shake them off. 
_Won’t you be true?

_I see the air drift 
with flakes of flesh. 
The river’s blood, 
the trees of severed limbs. 

Dismembered voices sing:_

HE has written us;

Why not you?_


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## Chesters Daughter (Jun 15, 2020)

This challenge is now closed.


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