This is a short anthology of poetry that Christine finished writing in 2003 in eighth grade. Several of the poems have appeared on local and national levels, in books, in magazines, in newspapers, and even on public buses. Several have also won local and regional awards from organizations such as The Poetry Society of Virginia and The National League of American Pen Women.

“Enchanted”
My ship sails waters gleaming blue
Waters that reflect symmetrical you
With every wave so gracefully serene
My pure fondness of you grows amply keen
And as the gulls melt into a sky so profound
I suddenly feel as if my heart has been bound
To only one creature who has ever breathed
It is you who has enchanted me, I’ve always believed


 “Seashell”
Seashell
Ocean’s daughter
Snail’s abode
Memories of past life
Of treasured youth
Of summer nights spent on the shore
Etched forever in my mind
Seashell


“Ha Lee Dah Dee”
Frail as a leaf in October
A papery figure is she
Lingering in the shadows of morning’s child
Crooning
'Ha Lee Dah Dee'
She sways in the wind of cruelty
The only one that’s ever tickled her hair
And swallows the world in her arms
Singing
'Hah! Lee Dah Dee'
'Hah! Lee Dah Dee'


“We Must Pray”
Listen to the hopeful hummingbird
And she’ll assure you she remembers every word
The Ancestors of an evolving time
Granted her Earth’s Story in verse and rhyme
Before we foolishly try to alter what is done
We must pray for throats that wish to hum


“Sparrow’s Sorrow Song”
Sparrow’s sorrow song
Leaks into the evening
 Trickling with purple pain
Venom runs through her every vain
How cold is mourning mist!


“Butterfly”
Sprinkling the world 
With the rain of your gist
You have no worries
Always fluttering
From rose to rose
Ignorant? 
Perhaps.
Butterfly, 
Why can’t my soul revel in the summer breeze 
In the cradling essence of bliss?
Why can’t I be like you 
 Free spirit soaring high
 From rose to rose?


“Iodine”
Taffeta dress
Flood of stress
Sequins galore
He’ll want more
Lipstick
She’s sick
Crack of the whip
Some iodine but just a sip


“Three Flowers”
The lily who seeks the sun may fail
Causing her dear old mother to ail
The rose who flaunts her every thorn
May never see her first child born
The iris who insists on standing still
May very well fall frightfully ill


“Phoenix”
The cry of the Phoenix pierces my skin
The knoll is bare
Yet she is there
When all the world has shunned me
She wails from her dying tree
Seasons come and seasons go
But she won’t feed me everlasting snow
Suffering has never plucked her plumes
It follows after others to their tombs
Here I offer my every bone
Just so I won’t breathe alone
Alas! When my day is to come
I’d give her the world and then some



“It”
It
 A pinch of sand
Smooth in the beginning
Spawned by a superior being
We run through his fingers

It
An hourglass
A candle lit
It will be blown by the one that birthed us
We put it upon ourselves

It
The fading time
We slither
He floods us with obstacles
The hourglass is shaken
Neighbors drown

It 
A sandstorm
We are jagged
And wound the ones we love most
Their tears feed the flowers

It
The shards
The hourglass has shattered
We spill across the floor and struggle to survive
Dreamers die... slain by their own figments

It 
The loneliness
The beach is desolate
The seagulls silent
The ocean jostles one grain of sand

It
The courage
To continue life
Despite solitude
Despite being the only grain of sand



“Empty Souls”

Vultures cast a pall

Over stumps of empty souls

Deaf to the lark’s song



“Agonizing Angel”
The music weaves through my mind
Seeping into my memories
Now there’s nothing I can confine

An agonizing angel takes my hand
And walks me through the cobble stoned streets of yesterday
Why is it that only the beggar man can sing a true carol of content?

Perhaps happiness arrives in Welfare packages
And pigeons learn to live off crumbs
Like the beggar man has



“Queen of the Sea”
How the sadistic siren simpered
As the netted porpoise whimpered
All the fish folk flocked to her side
To pay their respects to the Mistress of the Tide
Now queen of the sea
T’was meant to be 



“Minnow”
Spawned from two
who’ve swam in bigger ponds
I’m still young
practically born yesterday
Just starting to open my eyes
learning that there’s more to this world than there seems

Minnow, minnow
I’m still a minnow
Life’s upstream all the way

Their scales shine 
with wisdom and victory
Why can’t mine glitter in the sun like theirs?
There’s so much for me to know
I’m still marveling at mankind


“The Beauty of Life”
Incandescent love
for the beauty of life that
never fades with nightfall


“Geisha”
Her spirit lingers in the breeze
I hear her whispers in the trees
I gaze at her reflection in the koi pond

Bonsai saplings crave her touch
My care for them is not enough
They are forlorn without our geisha

The moon bridge called her name
The maiden never came
How despondent the garden is without our geisha

She didn’t even bid farewell
She didn’t even bid farewell


“Her Perspective”
Mirror’s cruel tongue lies
But his words soon become her eyes
A whale whispers a sorrowful song
Man’s feather bearer lives the truth
Hark!  Need the Reaper be the one 
To tell her she is wrong?


 “Oh! To be a lake!”
I kiss the shore and watch the children
Frolic upon my brother’s face
The stones they throw pierce my flesh and splinter it
I cradle the loon
as she mourns for her lost lover
Her weeping guilts me
How am I to tell her that
 I swallowed him long ago?
The moon combs her hair and brushes her teeth
I reflect her every action
When will I find myself?
Man slits my womb
slashing it savagely
with strokes of his rod
abducting my sons and daughters
and sealing them in tin cans
Traumatizing
When will it end?
Oh! To be a lake!



“Staircase”
Spiraling to the second floor
but do you know which way you’re going?
Up or Down 
Up or Down
Staircase.



“Tiddly Moo”
There’s me and 
There’s you
Tiddly Moo
Tiddly Moo
There’s us
Without him
Tiddly Moo
Tiddly Moo
And I ask you this
What shall we do?
Tiddly Moo
Tiddly Moo
Shall we weep
clinging to his lullabies
Tiddly Moo
Tiddly Moo
And understand 
That we’ll go too?
Tiddly Moo
Tiddly Moo


“The Berlin Wall”
Has your eye ever sequestered the Berlin Wall
With a clinging notion that it would never fall
And then through the silence of dust and smoke
Did you watch through blinding tears the mighty crumble
Of a structure chapped hearts built finally humble
Did you trample through the desolate street
Hoping that you might meet
The Messiah of your days
And only to hold your dear
Was really all that brought you here

To what was once so arrogantly standing


“Give me a rose”
Give me a rose
of petals soft and red
petals soft and red
petals soft and red
Give me a rose of petals soft and red
Smelling ever so fragrant

Give me a rose
blooming towards heaven
blooming towards heaven
blooming towards heaven
So I’ll always keep my faith

Give me a rose
of not a single thorn
not a single thorn
not a single thorn
Give me a rose of not a single thorn
So I’ll always remember you


“Voiceless Nightingales”
His throne calls to him
Like the outcast craves a mere glance
Ignoring the blossoming cry of the lance
His robes sweep the marble floor
His only contact with the lowly
And he rises to his people, ever-so slowly
To their fistfuls of Small Pox and hunger in their pails
Their eyes moored by the desire for a new king
O listen to the body of serfs sing:
'End Our Suffering!
End Our Suffering!
We are the voiceless nightingales that bleed.'


“Siren’s Womb”
How coral once manifested the sea
O and how pure it used to be
Before man aborted the siren’s womb
Sending the fish folk to a bloody tomb
Yet Titan could only weep
Once his children fell into eternal sleep


“His Wine”
He tibbles his wine
As if it’s so fine
As if it polish his cobwebb’ed mind
He posts a sign
As if they’re blind
As if he hadn’t already left the world behind


“Tiger Creek”
Tiger Creek
Rippled with their sins
Flowing with the moans
Of their bleeding souls
It growls with the hatred they instilled
And over the rocks they tried to weed


“Seed”
seed
A forest within
Dreaming of days to come
Clasped in father Time’s withered hands
Eyes imbued with innocence
Marveling at elders
So erect
So wise

seed
A forest within
Dreaming of days
Tucked in a wicker basket
That will become apparitions
With the whisper of spring
Oh! To be a shivering tree
Soon draped in glittering cloth

seed
A forest within
Dreaming of days
An angel bestows and the Devil embezzles
With cooing doves and gentle morning rain 
With golden wheat drinking sun and laughter from fairy folk
With ivy crawling ‘ round a stone and toadstools dappled in dew
These are the days our seeds dream of


“Spawning Ripples”
Fairies sneeze
Willows sway
They tiptoe across the water
Spawning ripples 


“Red”
Red is the color of a lasting love
of a youthful dove
fallen from a telephone wire
The color of the passion between night and day
of cynical legions at play
dining on succulent morsels of dice
Red is the color of lost lives and blood shed
of a devil-infested head
longing to crush the hallucinations
The color of a window never closed
of Grandmother’s wallpaper, so rosed
and leaking with the past she rarely spoke of
Red is the color of all we’ve left behind.


“Rain”
The sky is blanketed
With an angel’s sorrow
From feathery wisps of kitten fluff
To bold strokes of gray paint
A canvas of mourning
Beads of pain 
Crawl down her tender cheeks
Roll down her virgin gown
Seeping through what 
Was 
Once 
Cloud Nine 
Into a world not familiar with the gentle hands of love
A droplet slithers through the gates of Utopia
Along with sons and daughters
Whispering a “Farewell!”
And saturate the thirsty ground
Another day of living
Evil’s children beat their drums
Throw their rocks
Sing their songs
A sacrifice in their favor. 


“Solitude”
Sacred slivers of solitude
How you’ve wrapped me in your mood
With veils of  crumpled blue
Like the fledgling’s evening coo
Through the little light you shed
Have I discovered what all and none’ve said



“To be the Wind”
I am the wind
Whistling through the empty streets
Flirting with the sleeping leaves
Traveling with your hat to foreign lands
How lonely it is to be the wind


“Glue”
Tears of pearls
He made eyes at other girls
Made her weep
Scarred her so deep
Broken heart
New start
Wandering soul
An empty hole
All she needs is glue
To slay this plague of blue


“Hush, Child”
Her heart 
Beats with his voice
Like the gull with the sea
Like the weakling inside of me
He stretches his palms
With destiny deep
Hush, child
Hush, child
Our sister moon’s affair has just begun


“Lantern”
Now that this hour lingers upon our lonely lives
I shall confess as smoothly as the last loon dives
In all my longevity there’s been but one true light
So luminous, beaming, so limpid, bright
O how I’ve lavished in its seemingly eternal flare
Only to realize that it will no longer be there
Every fairy, every beast, every child’s fantastical notion
Has offered me a candle, igniting my explosion
For Worldly Willows, please understand
That there is but one lantern my heart does demand
Yet monstrous monsoons have deprived me of it
And nevermore shall it stay ever lit


“Gingerbread Man”
He claims that I am a blemish
On the sparkling face of the human race
And that in this Zion of his, he hasn’t any space
For flakes of paint like me,  just gingerbread men
He claims that Our Father
Thought I was inferior from the start
Like a poorly crafted dart
 And with the wave of his hand, the artist will sculpt his dolls
If only Mother had birthed me
With eyes beaming bright blue
And hair of fresh wheat, too
Then, perhaps, I wouldn’t become a gingerbread man



“Can’t”
An eye
Plagued by the glint of failure
Pools of amber leak into silver pearls
A face caked with the word
He never uttered
but a word
Breathing and Bleeding
'Can’t!'
cried the crow from his perch
Flashing ebony plumage
'Can’t!'
Sang the flowers
Feet in the earth
'Can’t!'
Screamed the kittens
 In the sky
But he wouldn’t allow such a word
'Can’t is a word
to be eaten by the trees
sequestered by the wind
but never
said 
by me,'
whispered he.


“Curbside of the Road”
Christmas Tree
Sheltering the gifts
Once you were naked
Now clothed with Holiday Cheer
Christmas Tree
Your seed was raised by angels
Once you were alone
Now protected by my home
Christmas tree
Your needles scatter the floor
Once you were loved
Now on the curbside of the road


“A Diamond of love”
He held her hand
Gave her a golden band
A diamond of love he did blow
Where he is now?
We don’t know


“I am”
I am demure and fragile
I wonder why the loon leads a solitary life
hiding in the depths of the desolate lake
doomed to a life of despondency
I hear his melancholy crooning
stabbing the still air
how it bleeds!
I see his battered body
wounded by the beasts that plague this world
I want to heal his shattered heart and stroke him gently
I am demure and fragile

I pretend I am bold and invincible
I feel the butterflies fluttering
I camouflage them
but they still remain
I touch them
trying to crush their frail parts- yearning that they’ll
wither away
I worry that they are immortal
I cry because of my timid nature
I am demure and fragile

I understand the loon is too weak to slay the insects
parasitic are they
I say that an attempt- no matter how futile- is better than not trying at all
I dream that all that glitters
truly is gold 
and not just dust
swirling in the breeze
I’ve been deceived too many times, already
I feel the loon’s pain
Maybe I’m wrong now
once again
Perhaps evil does thrive here 
as innocence’s close friend
I am demure and fragile


“River”
Her womb yields no life
Sterile
A mother no longer
Her arms empty
She embraces no daughters
She scolds no sons
Cans glued to her dress
Boots tangled in her hair
Rusty fishing lures bite her skin
O River
Stretch your composure
For there are many miles left to walk


“Superficial Plague”
We wear masks to conceal 
God’s gifts
How we suffer from our
Superficial Plague
In the end we 
Realize that we have let 
Society sculpt our souls


“The Truth”
There are those who do
those who have 
the freedom to dare
to stand up
and won’t hear excuses
They forget their own weaknesses
Charismatic leaders
Our Super heroes
Kings of the World
But some can only dream
that someday they’ll climb that mountain 
that they’ll be the ripe sensation ready for the world to taste
The Harsh Spotlight of Death doth fall on them
a simple fact of life
wouldacouldashoulda
goals shattered by 
deprivation
mistakes
reality
Emotional crisis for this crowd
so big
far from riches
a gold mine
romance
They never cared 
to dance in the breeze
to marvel at each snowflake
They took life for granted
the lark’s song didn’t matter
why bother to smell a rose
They could have had it all
the stars
 the sun
the moon
Tragic
instead the dreamers die.


“Drowning”
Arms thrashing 
Breaking water
How it shatters
A river of glass
One last breath
Dear life don’t leave me
The light is bright
Still ahead



“Enlightenment”
In a dawn drizzle I danced
And into enlightenment I pranced
To think! Of all things!
I believe I sprouted wings
Blessed with the gift of song
Hark!
I was serenaded by the lark
Bathed in sunlight
Frost took a harsh bite
Snowflakes kissed my nose
I was embraced by the Angel’s arm
And I knew I was protected from all harm
Stars imbued the darkening sky
And I prayed that they would never die
But suddenly the colors faded
I was eaten by the prowling wolf


“Humans”
This world’s painted in hues of gray
Love’s presence was too brief to begin with
Hatred burns on a blossoming wick
in the throne of our hearts
What a tyranny
When will we break these chains
which bound us to our ignorant ways
When will we hold our brother’s hand
It’s a shame now
Our neighbor's babies are naked and dying
clamoring through the night
Yet we turn away
as if we don’t know
God help us now
Dear Lord, how can you grant mercy on a race that’s so ugly
We live in glass houses
Yet we throw stones of jealousy
Can I pray for a glowing tomorrow
or will we fade away with the voice of destiny


“Coffee”
Black
A splash of milk
A dab of sugar
To soothe the bite of life
She lifts her cup
He raises his
Clink
A poet’s celebration


“When”
When we decide to run
Our hearts instinctively hide
From the wrath of the beating sun
When our stones
Cease to wrap doves in death
Fear nibbles at our bones
When our crops begin to wilt
We sell our dignity to Mother nature
And even worship the silt
When it is our duty to die
We reluctantly accept the coffin
And bid a platinum ‘good-bye’



“Mangled Insect”
See how the salmon slice through sparkling waters
Just as this shadow of rejection sunders his heart
Yet every scaled sailor is willing to sculpt a new start
He soars smooth stones, hoping to leave a dent
But her eyes skim ‘cross him  to behold a mangled insect
To this troubled fellow, she’s a creature God sent
O she shattered his spirit as do clumsy potters



“The Sky”
Timid, peaceful, and relaxed...
The world is placid, the sky asleep
Alas, the sun comes out of slumber
The great fireball rises 
 colors deep
Shades of orange, entwining with
Pastel violets swirled with mute grays 
 a sight for sore eyes
The sun vivaciously beams down with pride over its bountiful land
Now the color splashed sky says its goodbyes
Blue smears about like paint on a canvas
Clouds wisp across this sweeping picture 
 with appealing fluff
Resembling angelic kittens parading on by
These marshmallow clouds of which you simply can’t get enough
It slowly emerges into twilight 
 the ebony backdrop falls
The stars are bantam fireflies 
 lights incandescently glowing 
fairies of the evening
And then you feel the gentle night breeze blowing
The sky is all too active 
 ever changing
It never settles down
A bachelor at heart


“We Hold Our Gaze”
As the town rests their heads
Taking to their humble beds
We hold our gaze
Even if they disapprove
Our spirits shall not move
For what you are and will always be
 Has consumed every part of me



“Echidna”
The sun bled
And the sea turned red
The silence was shattered by song
Beneath the depths of the sea
Echidna held the key
To entice love-starved sailors to their death
She strummed her conch shell harp
And lured them with her tail of a carp
Basking on an island of rocks
'Land ho!' they’d shout
And then end their search for trout
Eager to visit the ravishing maid
She’d bid them a final farewell
And they’d meet an Oceanic Hell
Never to reach the shore again


“Wings of Prejudice”
When the cotton fields are dappled with dawn dew
When the wagon roads birth wallows 
I will summon you
‘neath the arms of Carolina pride
lie the abandoned graves
of the Southern Souls that died
The trees will whisper ...
“If their trains of ignorance obstruct your destiny’s ways
Tear the tracks...don’t ya dare look back
And continue with the rest of your days
If their wings of prejudice begin to taste the breeze
Cage the Jim Crow ‘till he can’t sing
And your freedom you might someday seize.”


“The Crane”
The crane croons our ballad
Over the moaning lake
And evaporates with the rain gods
Into a smear of clouds
Love tucked under her wing


“If They Try”
Buckets full of golden sand braided with flip flops
Each whisper of days past, salted with memories
And the gloomy gulls circling the open skies
Can they ever glide across the moon and reach the 
Heavens?
If they try...
If they try...


“Fairest is the Face of Kindness”
Baby’s breath adorns golden hair
And eyes of may wood flash a cold stare
A plate she brandishes
Grazing the sky with pastries and pie
But her heart latches the door
She nibbles her pinafore
A lion of life who fails to kill
Fairest is the face of kindness and how it flies
Never are the tresses unpinned and no! it never dies
For the maiden who chooses to bestow
Instead to receive
I believe
Is the one who feeds the flock of birds
Whose offerings flow in vast herds
Never shall she become acquainted with strife


 “A Suitcase of Memories”
She unfastened the bow that restricted her here
And rolled on socks that promised a land of cheer
She peeled off her dress of mistakes
Then packed a suitcase of memories


“Clay”
Elephants mold his mind
Their Clay
So fresh and young
Now there’s Trumpeting in the polls


“Our Children’s Tomorrow”
If I were to pluck a web
would a spider shriek?
If I were to throw a stone
would the ocean leak?
Would the stars become unfastened from Heaven
if I wounded Orion in the chest?
Would all the angels weep in silence
if I became an early guest?
If each of us does not water the garden of our hearts
would there still be a tomorrow for our children?


“Soiled Minds”
Soiled are their minds
With the maladies of media
Exposure to it all
Both the Lord’s children, O so great and small
Swords do slice through jungles thick
Palms leaves held by a voice so strong 


“He is”
Eyes are always on the moon
ones that covet
Kings of Deception always swoon
songs that slice the heart
Melancholy maidens spend their hours at the loom
their opuses bleeding with loneliness

he is the moon
he is the king
he is the maiden

Owls only pray in the ripe of dark
where they are hidden from heretic birds
On the tree, lovers leave their mark
the sap runs with their ballad
Gabriel whispered a tender ‘Hark!’
calming the startled Virgin

he is the owl
he is the tree
he is the messenger


“Bliss’d”
Blessed is the child 
Blooming with tenderness
Beaming, so mild
Bliss’d shall he be


“Stars”
Do the stars feel pain
fed by neglect from their mother?
I wonder.
Do they live a life of masquerade
showing sequined eyes
to conceal their sorrow?
If that is so
why do they twinkle merrily
like the gay wren’s song?
Do the stars feel pain
fed by neglect from their mother?
I wonder.


“Tiniest Cay”
Billowing sail on the sea
Out to the tiniest cay
O Ho! O Hee!
Leave me be
For I’m out to the tiniest cay


“Army of Shovels”
Clutch a gem thrown by a belle
Bury it within your heart
‘til it’s lost to even an army of shovels
Then birth a promise sweet and tart



“Every Stranger, Every Beast”
Snow blankets the earth
Let our every action be known to every stranger
Let our every wound be tasted by every beast
How we are stripped of privacy
Like the apple from the tree
Snow blankets the earth
And my soul feels naked



“A Child Sweet”
The meadow was once lush with whispers of wheat
But the rain has retired to dungeons deep
O how I had cradled dear life, a child sweet
All the valley has been sequestered by sleep
Now the sun hath mercilessly abandoned me 
And I can savor his warmth only through dreams
The meek moon murmurs that we can never be
For snaking ivy has slain his dancing beams
My mirthless soul withers without his touch
How cold is this plague of mourning mist!
Yet I never realized I’d pine for him this much
‘tis not ‘til this moment that I crave a sliver of summer’s gist
As the spell of ebony sweeps ‘cross the sky
I regret that I didn’t utter a mere 'Good Bye...'


“Why?”
Why are we here?
Is this Abraham's bosom?
Is that why we stay so near?
Why are we floating?
Are our souls that light?
Did we become saints overnight?
Why are we crying?
Did we meet the mockingbird?
Did we finally digest his cruel word?
Why are we dying?
Have we been poisoned with kindness?
Have we fallen into idleness?
Why are we gone? 


“Veteran”
A curs’d veteran of love
Pared to the light breast of a dove
Once she whisked his heart away
He waned with the meek moon
Grief can not be bridled
Nor end too soon


“Valentines”
Valentines never meant anything to me
Envelopes of glassy love is what they’ll always be
He isn’t sending his heart away to a country foreign
I shouldn’t settle for pipettes of passion
When I could swim in an open sea


“Glass House”
His glass house has been shattered
His worldly body has been battered
Strange how chattering birds 
Suddenly loose their gift of words



“The Koi Pond”
the koi pond
is silent
not even a sound
where are the koi fish
i see no scales
no delicate fins
just a siamese cat
lurking in the shadows


“To End Our Faith”
Our lungs clamor
Even hueless hearts hammer
The pale sky is engraved with spiritless smoke
And how they pined to end our faith with a choke
Sirens...O how they whistle
With the might of a sailing missile
Through streets blanketed in rubble
Alone in our own gloomy bubble
The eagle weeps for her nest
Yet we thank God that we saved the rest