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Joanna

Harper Johnson

Entry into the 2026 Short Story & Poetry Contest - Teen Poetry category.
Traced in the petals
Of a timeless lantana 
A paean passed through time
A hymn named Joanna
 
Narration through fanciful eyes
As if gazing beyond a withered yarrow
But her heart feeding itself lies
To reach a kaleidoscope without sorrow
 
A rivulet of love
Burrowed in her skin
Streams sprouting through veins
Heart pumping forth sin
 
She saw his face ornate
A figure for her mind to revere 
Grazing her surface she realized
Their souls must be near
 
Even pivotal eyes that scream
As important as they seem
Could not contain her feat
Over all the aureate gleam
 
In her dreams tied with gold
Off her feet she was swept
But brought back by the breeze
Under covers she wept
 
For she knew their song of love
Was plucked with the strings of her heart
A forlorn melody floating above
That she'd ruminate from the start
 
Is crazy from love
Not better than from hatred?
She thought it to herself
For his love she awaited
 
But his tide rolls in
No matter her moon
Her silent disaster of notice
At his departure so soon
 
In the lens of reality
The glitter lustrously embedded 
Lost its flame towards ash
Requesting a truth once dreaded
 
Beneath her lyrics overgrown
She drowned in the past revel
But she felt a figure pass and linger
One who came down to her level
 
Through rose petals askew
A new flower grew
Not glaring, not sublime
But a truth to grow in time
 
So her final act of love
Release the sacred dove
Keep the hand on his soul
From the angels above
 
Yet she can always recall 
The written cries of hosanna
Ripped and left at the altar
From a hymn named Joanna

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