# New challenge, RTA



## Olly Buckle (Feb 8, 2009)

As I was the only person to enter the challenge for "baseball" I figured that I win that section and decided to do something I have been considering for some time, namely split the challenge into two parts so one is being written and one voted on at all times and you don't have to wait a month for your next chance to enter if you don't fancy the subject.
 My choice for the subject is *A Road Traffic Accident*, I figure that there are so many of them that almost everyone has some experience of one, and they are certainly traumatic enough to inspire some sort of outpouring.
 As this thread will cover the voting thread for the love poems I would remind you to vote for your favourite there as well.


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## candle (Feb 8, 2009)

Road Trip

The soft insouciance of heading home at night
Broken by blue flashing light
Beside the hairpin road.
Troopers guarding the trees with care
Warning motorists beware.
Dead along the red cycle sprawls the suit's remains
Another lies in the leaves, quiet and tame.
Spotlights' glare torch the dark
Reveal the cycle still upright,
The trees hold it tight.


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## Tom (Feb 9, 2009)

*Irritated Snowman

*    Homebound with the snow 
  and the ice as it bites 
  into my tyres 
  just like my damn boss bites 
  into my neck.

  Little needles of white 
  hit the front window 
  like the irritated voices 
  of my colleagues 
  hit me.

  Pressing down on the pedal 
  I think of the warmth 
  of my home 
  instead of the coldness 
  of my bitter representatives.

  And then I stop.

  Ever so suddenly 
  I hit the brakes as 
  I glimpse the cornered off section 
  of this glum road.

  Taking a closer look 
  I realise I am right, 
  as a blonde-haired woman 
  is halfway through her window 
  and drenched in white tinted blood.

  She resides opposite my desk.

  And without warning 
  I am placed opposite her again 
  as I hear the screeching 
  of gritless tyres 
  and watch the bright lights 
  grow ever bigger.

  My seatbelt snaps with me.

  And as I lie 
  in the middle of the frosted road 
  stained in my own blood 
  and embraced by shards of glass 
  I wince, 
  just like I winced when I realised 
  I had to come into work that day.


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## gagoots (Feb 9, 2009)

When does this close? Working on an idea now.


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## Tarantula (Feb 9, 2009)

Samsung Predators
I'm late for work,
why won't these assholes proceed?
I reach under my seat,
snotty toilet paper wad,
no,
tatty Stephen King novel,
no,
remains of a Whopper; America's favorite burger,
no,
There it is,
Ibuprofen 800mg,
I swallow it dry,
What the fuck are these people looking at
that is so important,
and Why was Gherke wrong 
today of all days?
I step on the gas and jerk to a stop,
I step on the gas and jerk to a stop,
Lights blue and red circle 
like vultures
and the spectators will pick the bones clean
with Samsung flashes
I rub the bridge of my nose and sigh
wishing I hadn't quite smoking
We will never move


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## gagoots (Feb 10, 2009)

*Little Deaths*

Fingers sweep over cool twisted metal,
our blood flows, engorging.
Follow the contours, excitment builds
as the lines become senseless.
Let's slip into  this crumpled chaos...

...and pretend.

Inside we can still feel the impact,
as we grind and thrash with quickened breath.
The violent end of life surrounds us,
and brings us to our little deaths.


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## C.Gholy (Feb 13, 2009)

*Loathed On The Road*

Cracks of the glass lay there, 
Bathing in a newborn river
From a red waterfall.

Leaks from the flesh stained
The beauty of the car.
The victim wished for help
Until his soul faded away.

Time and Fate decided to be cruel,
And eat his life before he could heal.
All that was left...
Was a drooling corpse 
And a scared family. 

This is the reason
Why beer addicts are loathed
On the Road.


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## terrib (Feb 13, 2009)

is this just poems?


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## Olly Buckle (Feb 14, 2009)

It's just poems at the moment, when the competition closes there is the opportunity to vote for your favourite and comment on the poems. We are now voting on the previous poems (A love poem without using the word "love") in the thread "Vote for Love". Unfortunately so far there have been no comments and only one person has voted, the poets have not even voted for their own work! Luckily there were only two entries so I was able to install a poll and won't have the tedium of adding the vote up.
  Don't know what the problem was that time round, was it something I did?


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## Olly Buckle (Feb 14, 2009)

We have another vote in the "love" thread (That's 2 now folks). Irony is that one of the contestants voted for the other, this evens up the scores and gives us a tie situation, so hurry over to Love and vote now.
 P.S. 38 people have visited the thread without commenting or voting??? They can't all be Google bots surely?


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## d.b.potts (Feb 20, 2009)

*Confessions of a Modern Sociopath*

CONFESSIONS OF A MODERN SOCIOPATH

"I'm so beautiful," she thinks to herself
as she gazes amorously in the mirror 
and touches up her light pink lipgloss.
People wave as they pass by her window.

"I'm so rhythmic," she muses to herself
as her manicured fingers dance and drum
to the swing of some same-old pop song. 
People cup their hands and call out in vain.
They wave as they pass by her window.

"I'm so popular," she affirms to herself 
as she laughs and babbles into her cell phone.
He said that she said that real conversations 
are nobody's business. People reach out for her.

"I'm so lucky," she declares to herself 
as she watches a small body roll to a heavy halt
beneath the red light receding in her rear view.
People surge forward and clamor to the skies.
Staggered, is this now stock-still city intersection.

"I'm so blessed", she confesses, "to be 
number one."


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## Olly Buckle (Feb 23, 2009)

This thread is now closed to new poems (a little late, I apologise). If you would like to add comments to the poems as well as voting please feel free.


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