Deadly Leaders

    Children wailing, most of them bleeding, wounded, or sick.  A foul and ghastly smell, the stench of death.  The moaning and sobbing of those who are in Death's grasp.  The sounds of Death were the sounds of life for Sarah from Sarah's Key and Katniss The Hunger Games series.  Both of these characters' books follow a similar plot line.

      Both of these girls are kept in horrible conditions.  Katniss is burned and stung by tracker-jackers.  Sarah is underfed, filthy and is forced to "relieve" herself in holes in the ground, although nothing comes as a relief in a place like that.  This leads to many lives lost.   

      In The Hunger Games  series, some people die in the fire that Katniss was burned in, and some were killed by the tracker-jackers that Katniss set loose.  They also die because other children killed them in an act of survival.  Due to being underfed and kept in filthy conditions, many people in Sarah's Key die.  Also, they were killed in gas chambers.

       All of the people dying in these books is due to the people in control.  In The Hunger Games series, the people in control is the Capitol, and in charge of the capitol Is President Snow.  The people in control in Sarah's Key are Hitler's army, and in charge of his army is Adolf Hitler himself.  Both of these leaders forced people to their into camps that resulted in the peoples deaths.  President Snow forced children into the hunger games and Hitler forced people into concentration camps.

     Both of these characters had to grow up very fast to deal with the circumstances of life.  Unfortunately, one of those circumstances included having to look into their siblings eyes and see Death staring back at them.  Heart-breakingly, they had both seen that look before. 

It Never Really Was

I'm coming back, I've got nowhere else to go
Could I ,what if, I will never know
Dance until sky meets space
Run until you can't see his face
Don't look, don't cry, don't even think
Away those tears you will blink
The images still intertwine
Though that boy will never be mine,
Again, I lost him, I let him slip
Lost him because of my grip
If you love something, let it go 
And I did, so many years ago
If it comes back to you it is yours
So why am I still alone with my ancient sores

Of course I know, just don't want to believe, because 
If it doesn't, it never really was

Vast

Wispy fingers drift through the sky

They reach out to grasp anything,

 Just to stay a little longer,

They don't want to leave

And neither do I

Stealthy bodies glide down the slopes

Trying to run away

To stay alive

But they slip and flow through the cracks

Like all my dreams and hopes

Hungry mouths, hungry for more

Burning teeth

Scorching tongues

Deadly tempered, and self destructing

Like life, it will leave you scarred and sore

Crimson tears

Seeping through flesh

Can't be stanched 

Too much loss

Everlasting fears

Never-ending Remembrance of Despair

Immense beauty
Impeccable perfection
Exuberant extravagance
Exquisite existence
Tantalizing possibilities
Tormenting temptations
Restless devastation
Recurring regulations
Exceptional determination
Endless regrets

Falling

I sigh to the mountain and lift my head up to the sky

I collapse on my knees and soothe the temptation to cry

Sing back to the sound of the spring's calling

The flowers bloom, the trees grow, all the while, I'm still falling

Falling, in love, I can't stop myself, and I know when I land, it will hurt

So the tears drop, and wet my shirt

What am I gonna do

If I can't stop loving you

Broken Promises

A broken promise

A friendship destroyed

Demons in disguises

Halos tinted red

Ghastly silences

Bleak shadows

Sworn truths

Uncovered lies

Crossed fingers

Words taken back

Forced smiles

Counterfeit love

Innocence Stained Red

Oh please don't stain my white dress with your drops of red

You're gonna die, you took quite blow to the head

So I hold your hand while you whisper the names of your loved ones

She still stands there, dripping with your blood, then she turns and runs

Come back, you coward, you pitiless person

How dare you run away and watch this man's condition worsen

There's no life in his eyes, no soul within

Now a silent heart, no breath taken, a yellowed skin

Why he deserved this, it's anyone's guess

I walk silently to his grave, shedding tears in my new red dress

 Author's Note: I can't find a title for this.

You are the boulder that rolls over me and crushes my dreams
You are the one who weighs me down whenever I try to fly
You are the reason I can't leave
You are the person that keeps me in this trap
You are the thing,  a pitiful soul
You are the beautiful mask of sorrow
You are the target of my pity
You are the son of misfortune and grief
You are the bearer of my pain and burden
You are the cloak of invisibility that I wear
You are the only one who can see who I am

It Wouldn't Kill You To Smile

I plead, I cry, I get pushed down
I have a passionate hate for this town
A bully, a thief, and a liar
My pain only fuels your ever-growing fire
You push, you scream, you kick and shout
But you never hear me out
Just listen for once, it will be worth while
I know why you don't ever smile.
My sister died too
Just push through it, and move on. It's what they would want us to do.

Wall

You are

My wall

You hold

Me back

You block

My vision

You cut

My flesh

You weaken

My will

You refuse

My attempts

To make

You crumble

But time

And time

Again, I.

Will. Break.

You. Down.

Secrets Untold

Names unknown, memories lost
Forgotten loves, secrets untold
Truths unknown, lives lost
Forbidden loves, secrets untold

Restless nights, unhealed wounds
Taken lives, secrets untold
Silent nights, fresh wounds
Hidden lives, secrets untold

Children forgotten, hearts broken
Quietly approaching, secrets untold
Faces forgotten, promises broken
Death approaching, secrets untold.

Listen to Me

Listen to the pencil cry
Don't you hear the story
Listen to the whispered words
Don't you hear the worry
I listened as the silence throbbed
I was the one who felt its tears
Don't you know its life was robbed

Life's Logic

Ask me why I did
Ask me what I was thinking
Ask me why I close my eyes whenever I see beauty
Ask me what I did to deserve that
Ask me how I survived.

Summer Day

The trees, their whisper, the velvet leaves

The day, its calling, us its thieves

The luscious air, the cooling breeze

The drifting pollen, do not sneeze

The deep blue sky, its sunny smile

Cloudy eyes, it has lived a while

Life.  Live, living, lived.

We are alive.

Broken

The mysterious summer day

Mysterious like her

Her orange dress

Orange like the sunset setting the sky ablaze at dusk

A laugh and a twirl

Laugh as if there's no tomorrow

The teardrop glistening, reflecting the day

Teardrop- a symbol of despair

Her broken heart

Broken beyond repair

A shattered silence

Shattered heart, shattered love, shattered soul

The Journey of Life

Walk by my side as we search for our journey
Look me in the eye and tell me all your secrets buried
Hold me as we sit under the sky
Dance with me to celebrate all the stories told
Bow your head to honor all the lives lost
Run with me as we watch our lives unfold
Just don't tell me that I'm dreaming.

Tears of Sorrow

 Author's Note: My goal was to score high for voice.

Her breath caught as she saw him there, sunlight dancing in his eyes.  Those mysterious, dark eyes.
The kind of guy that's hard to find,
Oh, you make me lose my mind.
She leaned against him and looked at the sky.
"It's as if the sky is on fire."
Yellow as a lemon picked fresh from a tree,
Red like waves of blood and drifting bodies in the sea.
They sat in silence until he told her what he came to tell her.
"I'm moving on.  I'm leaving this town."
I'm the one that's making you do this,
But you're the one I'm gonna miss.
"And never coming back?"
"Of course I'll come back, for you."
So he doesn't know what I did,
or how I was responsible for the death of his kid.
"Don't." She whispered.
That much I can do for him.
He will be saved, unlike little Kim.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't.  Don't ever come back."
I can't be selfish, I have to let go
How I really feel, I can't let him know.
"Don't try.  Don't call.  Don't follow."
She got up and started to walk away.
Don't turn, don't wave, don't say goodbye
Don't ever let him see you cry.
"Then say that you don't love me.  Don't lie."
Pull yourself together, be strong
Say something that will last long.
She looked him in the eye.
"You pitiful soul.  All of it was a lie."
Then she turned and left.  Forever.
Tears of sorrow, bitter sweet
A forbidden love, no defeat.

When A Star Shines Too Bright

Dance with me 'till we reach the moon
But even then, you won't see me swoon
Lift me as I try to reach a star,
Then I will realize that's who you are
A star, out of reach,
Your defenses I can't breach
I can't break through to you
Oh what, can I do.

Don't follow

Fly through the night, drift in the sea

Just don't come looking for me

For I know who you really are

You, who keeps his heart in a jar

Protected, but easily broken

Like your body when you were first woken

Your past marks you like a scar

It was branded on your skin and stretched too far

Holding out love at arm's  length

Yet it is your will, it is your strength

Here on Earth oh so long

Listening to misfortune's pitiful song

Don't go insane, get a grip

There goes your life, don't let it slip

Watching everything spin out of control

Something is missing, you're no longer whole

A stranger to a gentle touch

Not ever seeing humans much

So  I ask you to not follow, stay away, don't come near

I'm  hurting you because I love you, my immortal dear.

At Least It Wasn't Me

Itching, scratching at my door

It is back and it wants more

 Death is waiting right outside

Hurry, someone better have died

Burn him alive with a torch,

But then he'll only be a scorch

Better yet, shoot him in the heart

Use a blowgun with a poisonous dart

Take a blade to his head

Now here comes Death, like I said

Glad I wasn't the victim of that.

Death wants one more? Oh drat.

Mirror Image

Why do you look away if I'm standing right here

I'm always at your side, I'm your reflection in a mirror

Why don't you turn around, why don't you see,

 Why don't you understand, me

Just believe I exist, and you'll really know

Who it was who grabbed your heart and didn't let go

I look in your eyes and see fate staring back

So how do you look out of the same eyes and only see black

Ashes of the Past

Flames, flames burn away

All the pain of today

Ashes blow, children cry

I set the fire, don't ask why

Hungry wives and not one man

Just lit the flame, turned and ran

Smoke billow through the sky

Signify all those who will die

Burn and spread like the pain in my chest

Keep running, fly to the woods, do not stop, and do not rest

Light of the Dark

Author's Note: This is from the point of view of a dead man who wants to trade places with his living brother so he can be with the love of his life.

Ghosts, ghosts of the night
Shadows of my old fright
Drifting souls with no skin
An empty shell, no life within
"Spirit, spirit on the other side
How do I reach you if  I am held back by the tide?
This river is holding me back from the light
Help me, help me, spirit of the night
 Sing me the song of the dark
Ignite my love with your spark
I long for my love and her beating heart
We shall unite and never part"
"Oh brother dear, you do not deserve to be here
But you must understand why I shan't shed a tear
I deserve to be with her
So I am living, but not alive, as neither of us ever were."

Mockingjay Analysis Final

In Mockingjay, a teenage girl is overcome with emotions of love, pain, and spite while trying to adapt to a completely different environment.  Mockingjay is written in Katniss, the teenage girl’s, point of view.  With Katniss telling the story, everything seems to be a do or die situation.  However, her struggle is not the only important one.

After being in the hunger games twice, Katniss sees everything as life and death.  In district 8, it was sit there and hide while people die, or try to shoot down the Capital’s hover planes against orders.  Again, in the Capitol, it was be a good girl and head back to camp, or try to get to President Snow’s mansion so she can finally get her revenge.

If the story was told from Peeta’s point of view, the reader would be able to fully understand how physically and emotionally torturous Peeta’s stay under Snow’s control truly was.  Much of the book though would probably be about what was going on in Peeta’s mind, especially during the times when he tried to kill Katniss.  Also, the reader would really be able to appreciate what Peeta had to go through to learn to love Katniss again.

Gale’s point of view would be about how he was constantly hurting as he watched Katniss love Peeta and not him.  His conflicting emotions would be told as he wanted Katniss to love him, but at the same time wanted her to be happy which meant he wanted her to be with Peeta.  This also meant that he wanted Peeta to get better so Katniss would be happy again, but he also wanted Peeta out of the way so he wouldn’t have any “competition”.

No matter who Suzanne Collins picked for the point of view of this story, it would be a story about a struggle.  For Peeta, a struggle for sanity.  Gale, a struggle for love.  Then, of course, there’s Katniss.  A struggle for life.

If Only You Knew

"Love me, hate me, I don't care,
as long as you know who's really in there
Realize that you don't have to divide yourself in two
Tomorrow you'll look back on this and wonder what I meant, 
oh boy, if only you knew"
"Despite what I said,
you went ahead
and got yourself into this mess
There's no use lying, just confess,
sometimes you held me, sometimes you cried
and sometimes you regretted the way that I died."

Be With Me

Whisk me through the atmosphere, whisk me through my life

Take me down memory lane and never look back twice

Show me your path through the stars, show me the way of life

Guide me through all the twists and turns of the maze of my heart

Help me to untangle my love , it's caught on all the thorns of spite

Hold me as I cry to the night and all the dreamers respond

Hate me 'cause I love you, I'll only love you more

Love me 'cause you can't hate, but I have my whole life

Whisk me, take me, show me, guide me, help me, hold me, hate me, or love me,
just be with me 'till eternity ends

Bloodbath in the Snow

Author's Note: This piece's purpose is to describe.

Lava rolling over the hills, blood running down the slope.  Glistening red atop florescent white.  A blooming fuchsia  flower blossoming from her cloak.  His laugh a trill shattering the fragile night.  She rolls down the hill, a dead rag doll, lifeless limb after lifeless limb.  Ending in a heap of crumpled flesh, broken bones, and a still, silent heart.

Irony

"Daddy, I want a human!" Calypso whined.

"I don't know honey, they're a big responsibility.  They die quite easily."The king of Mars replied as he thought about how much his daughter manipulates him.

"Okay, if you say so.  It's just that I heard Jupiter already has more than a hundred human pets.  We only have ninety-nine."

The only thing the king hated more than his daughter's bratty behavior was being bettered by another planet.  Mercury and Venus were peaceful planets, and didn't like to compete.  Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were to busy  trying to grow or invent things that they didn't bother to involve themselves with other planets.  Pluto was so pathetic that even the humans barely call it a planet.  Earth started to fall apart years ago and is so desperate that they actually started to send humans to the planets just so their race can survive, or at least try to.  Then there's Jupiter.  It's the only planet that is worthy enough to compete with Mars.  And so it does.  The king agreed to his daughter getting a human as a pet, and that "pet", unfortunately was me. 

Normally, the aliens just get humans  to use them as servants.  But Calypso wasn't normal. "She's so cute!" she cried when she first got me.

"Uh uh, you ain't gonna call me cute." I said. 

"Now, be a good girl and don't sass your owner."

This girl needed some sense knocked into her.  And so slapped her in the face.  "Don't you be sassing me!  You are not my "owner" you are my…host while I stay at your house.  And you will not call me cute."

Of course I forgot that I was dealing with the most spoiled and guarded princess in all the planets. 

"Guards!  Teach my pet who's in control."  Immediately six blades were pointed at my throat.  "Now, if you be a good girl, I won't have to have my guards slit your throat."

It wasn't even five minutes and I already hated her. That was record time.

Later that day, she took me a fashion show.  One of the models was wearing a gorgeous green ball gown.  Calypso made a disgusted noise.  She turned to the man next to her.  "Anything that ugly should be tossed into the garbage-and I'm not talking about the dress."

They both burst into giggles and gossiped the rest of the evening.  Which was good because they paid no attention to me.  I slipped outside and just like that I was free.  Running, I went through a map of Mars in my head.  The airport wasn't far from here.  I had to get back to Pluto.  Turning the corner, I was suddenly frozen with the horror of my sudden realization…I had no money.  No money means no plane ticket.  No plane ticket means I have to stay here with Calypso. 

She had only just crossed my mind when she came around the corner.  She looked like my mother looked after my brother broke her great-great-grandmother's china.   "Do you remember what I told you about you misbehaving?" She fumed.

"I remember, you said that if I wasn't a "good girl" you would have your guards slit my throat."  I managed to squeak out.

"Well I lied."

Waves of relief washed over me, and then horror as she spoke again.

"I want to be the one that chops off your head."