A poem by Danae Kawamoto

A girl once believed she’d soar with her dreams.

Unencumbered, desire carried her heart.

As her mind ripened, so did savage screams,

Of the beasts that tear conviction apart.

Beneath fractured smiles, minds confine the new,

Remaining, solely fragments left behind.

Escaping the dark, she aims to pursue

Freedom, the single drug that cures the blind.

Helpless, a wasted drop stuck on thin web,

Another beauty shattered and broken.

A soul suffocated until its ebb,

Her precious fantasies left unspoken.

No need to end with a blow to the head

When what is alive is already dead.