Shattered Ornament

Construct Cup sample poem

Theme: Shattered Ornament
Words to use: shard, dance, memory, heart
Forbidden words: the word 'a', bounce, roll, crash, red, green, broken
Additional parameters: At least 20 lines.

Shattered Ornament


It must have fallen in the middle of the night--
no one awake to hear it hit, splinter
into multicolored shards.
Yet there, having collapsed in on itself, almost perfectly
round circle: starburst of crimson and gold.

Slow heartbeat of lights caught, reflected.
Kaleidoscopic patterns dance. Memory swirls--
Madam Pele reaching long finger to the sea.
Her soul throbs in cauldron of fire.
Songs of steam whispering her commands.

Baubel fired from molten lava
wrapped in threads of Pele's hair.
Memory made visible, ornament for Maui tree.
Now naught but bits of fractured glass.
Swept pieces returned to the fire.

Thoughts linger of that faraway place,
no less so without the orb to see.
Perhaps more, for memory
keeps looking glass clear and we
still feel the fire. And on the tree, the lights still burn.