# January Challenge - "Unknowns"



## Baron (Jan 19, 2012)

The theme for the January challenge, suggested by j.w.olson, is *"Unknowns"

*Remember that you may approach the subject in whatever 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, it is disheartening to disqualify people for things like a trivial edit, but the rules will be applied.

Because of the holiday, you have a little longer to post entries. This challenge will close on the *1st February 2012. 

**Please make sure that your work is properly formatted before pressing the submit button. Work edited after posting may be excluded from the challenge. Do not post comments in this thread. Any discussions should be posted in the Bards' Bistro.*


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## Ghost (Jan 19, 2012)

Leaving

From somewhere in other rooms comes to me
the guilt of your whispering; it is the moth
whose wingbeat is the click of the hand-set,

whose fluttering is a stray scuff of steps,
soft and away from me. Somewhere not far,
our son keeps his silence, heaps the floors,

clutters the corners with it, lets it gather
like must, like webs, like years-old dust.
There must be more than this, more than

just flit and bicker and wings that are whispers
dusted with the weight of their own quiet. What
is to be the light of their worship? What word

might be traced in the motes on the pane, left
to hang in the tack of the webs? And what of these
holes in the drape: ragged, festering, secret?


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## aj47 (Jan 22, 2012)

Algebra_

x_
unknown
solve for me
make me equal
find me in myself
add, subtract, multiply
answer each digital quest
discover now my true value
magnitude, sign, precision digits
we will then complete perfect unity​


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## Martin (Jan 23, 2012)

*A blissful riddle*

In the beginning, everything is cloudy
follow through and there I am
at the end of every feeling.

I turn anger into hurt,
have lies transcend away;
from etching illusion, I'll set you free.

I'm the bonder of true friendships
my best friend is love itself
unconditionally
without a doubt you know me;

don't forget,
don't let just passion fill your head -
be whisked away 
and it will no longer be me
there, in the flame.

When you despair, search within
I come and go and you'll never know
I just might be in. 

Enlightening is my game.
What is my name?


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## obi_have (Jan 24, 2012)

*The Future? I Wrote a Sonnet On It.*

The future is a place where no one knows
what happens next, we might look back to now,
the end results of options that we chose;
When faced with facts, they're hard to disavow.

So what's the cause of these effects we feel?
The answers and the questions go both ways.
The here and now may not define what's real,
yet still it moves along without delays.

But one thing that I'm sure of: I don't know.
And I'm content to simply let it be.
To ride along and just enjoy the show
just guarantees that someday I will see.

There's something coming just around the bend;
Will I recall the starting at the end?


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## Nick (Jan 27, 2012)

*Sacrifice on the Sands of Syria*

Girl runs. Headlights follow.
Girl pleas. Breeze ignores, fumbles, punishes.
Car pulls out. Girl tumbles…
                        Girl’s suspended…
                                like a flag not yet billowing
                                        not yet full and proud.
                                                    She falls.
                                                    She prays.
                                                    She lands.
Men get out. Men drag her back.
“For King. For country. For God.”
As her body descends to their greed,
she meets the same fate
as the other children long ago, 
barely a wind’s whistle of them left,
sacrificed on these ancient sands
for their god-king. 

We’ll pick up the headline.
“Just a child. Such a shame, such a shame.”
But live on we must,
and forget that ink that defied her, named her:
"Girl, unknown”.


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## Chesters Daughter (Jan 29, 2012)

*Scrutiny Breeds Mutiny*

Today a stranger stared at me
peering with ferocity
on a quest 
for a lass she knew,
her grumpy grimace 
reflected
I simply wouldn't do.

With her button nose
crinkled up
and pallid lips
pursed in disgust,
blinking emeralds
deliberately blurred
to contort my features,
but still she eyed
an unknown creature.
So once more,
I was spurned.

Taken aback, 
and now staring back,
I whispered "Screw you",
spun on heel with zeal
to give her a rear view,
plum-faced and screaming,
"You know what you can do!".

Then I threw my shoe

shattering the stranger
whose bones still hang
from my closet door.

The gal that witch 
was looking for
is gone 
forevermore.


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## Baron (Feb 1, 2012)

This challenge is now closed.


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