I am your Holiday Merit Badge Bonanza match and I choose this poem because the title represented a genre that I am all to familiar with.

When I first loaded the poem and glanced at it, I noticed that it was rather short. This is commonly a put-off in poetry, though sometimes I wonder why. This is one of those times.

After beginning to read the poem and getting the rhythm, the flow, the story, the power behind it, I understood short was all that was needed to make this a masterpiece. Simple aa rhyme scheme, the lines are all fairly equal in syllables ranging from 8-11.

The words are carefully crafted, and it reads all together almost like a chant. I think that alone adds to the powerful concept you have framed. Love being broken is never something simple, never easy, and most definitely not something easy to deal with, and yet with this 12 line, 6 stanza poem you did just that. Simplify.

Each stanza is broken into a different idea. A different aspect of your story. The first placing the reader into a defensive stance that makes perfect sense once the poem is fully read. The second speaking of a past leaving painful emotions. The third, the confusion of a mixture of pain, betrayal, passion, and desire. The fourth, brings it back to the first stanza meanwhile emphasizing the pain of this "duel" was brought forth by both partners. The fifth, re-establishing both the third and forth stanzas. And finally the sixth stanza brings it all together.

My favorite line is "No end before, no new beginning now."

Overall you created a fabulous and mind bending poem that I will remember for a very very long time.