The city lived, exhaling her light,
Fighting away the shadow monsters that lurked closer, hungry for the sweet taste of fear.
As a flame flickers dusk approached,
Sliding along the streets, its presence at large, smiling slyly as a shadow.
The people ran through the streets, to their homes, slamming doors, locks snapped, children sprinted to their beds hiding in their parents arms,
Night bore down on the buildings, fear was the city’s queen,
Dark came,
Night appeared,
Fear entered,
Creatures materialized,
Shadows crept over the barbed fence, smirking as children shrieked, sliding throughout the city, giggling at the moon.
Men checked the doors, Women shivered, children cried, dogs howled,
Shadows scampered throughout the roads blowing out light, setting the stage for a play.
They flew over the world snatching stars, leaving the sky a dark canvas,
They threw leaves from the trees, wind snatching them far from their homes.
They played catch with light bulbs, still hot from the streetlights that dotted the winding roads.
They snuck from window to window whispering stories to children that shivered under colorful covers,
And when the people finally prayed for the return of light that would lead them to tomorrow,
It did not come.
Soon they wished to leave their city, to wave their white flag of surrender, to give up their homes,
But the monsters slunk through allies yelling snarkily at the sky,
They scraped their long, slimy nails through doors watching the buildings shiver.
The shadows were eternity, they were life, they were forever.
Then,
Dawn began to crack through the dark bowl the city was hiding under,
Penetrating through the shadows.
Light made the people brave, they stepped out of their houses, soldiers preparing for war.
The people swept up the glass littering the ground like twinkling stars,
They painted light up on the canvas that covered the world,
They placed leaves back onto their homes like a 3D puzzle,
They fought the queen that took over their city,
And the people said goodbye.
They said goodbye until tonight.
The inspiration for my poem was the image of the city surrounded by a dark fence. I began to wonder what the citizens were trying to keep out, or what they were trying to keep in. Shadows seemed prominent, so I began to think about what the citizens could fear and how they could fight this fear. What I immediately thought of was the idea of light against the dark. Was there a shadow monster that crept into the city when light faded away? What if the monsters terrorized the citizens until light rose again in the city and the people went out to fight the dark? That became my story, light against dark.
Sasha Bull, 13, lives in Denver Colorado