Oxygen

by Karla   Feb 26, 2015


There is no comfort.
you look at the invisible sky but nothing is there.
you are all alone, counting the days left
in the calendar, hoping to survive
your last mistake as a dirty pile of dishes
waits in the kitchen.

disenchantment squeezes the soul,
life vomits the truth and the blame.
the limit has no limit and you cross
the boundaries of sanity, seeking solace,
seeking for what can't be found in love
or faith.

despair sits on the pillow,
suffocating, scratching the night,
pushing you through the open window:
the fall is always cinematographic.
you smile back as the audience claps and cheers
when the curtain closes.
the final act is superb.
bravo! they shout.

but you are dying.
but you are alone.
your last interpretation is perfect
for your imperfect fans.
they gather around
like hyenas, watching you bleeding
with some curiosity
and as you lie down there,
feeling no oxygen in your veins,
you realize that nobody really cares.

Karla Bardanza

5


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Latest Comments

  • 9 years ago

    by Sunshine

    Karla, every time you write down your heart, you blow your readers away.

    Oxygen, it's the main source for survival, one cannot live without it. Simply. It's vital.

    I loved your direct and straight short There is no comfort. Just hitting us hard from the very beginning.

    Then you went on and on with complete vulnerability, a very rare one! You spoke your deepest sadness and most honest feelings without trying to decorate them.

    This illustration of the case you're trying to elaborate on, is sensational and touching because it is not limited by your poem, but witnessed on a broader table in our daily life.

    You did very well on this one!

  • 9 years ago

    by Baby Rainbow

    This poem really grabbed my attention this week, as Karla takes us into a deep state of depression and truly shows what a dark and lonely place it can be. The tone is hopeless, and dull, and I think she has done a great job with keeping the poem interesting and not cliché for the content. Moving words that really hit the reader hard.

  • 9 years ago

    by Meena Krish

    Despair sits on the pillow,
    suffocating, scratching the night,
    pushing you through the open window:
    the fall is always cinematographic.
    you smile back as the audience claps and cheers
    when the curtain closes.
    the final act is superb.
    bravo! they shout.

    ^^In this stanza is where my heart was caught and the words penned here made me feel the desperation as well as suffocation. Its this part that most associates with the title Oxygen! I really had to take a breath here.
    A moving write...Congrats on the win!

  • 9 years ago

    by Liz

    Congrats on the well-deserved win. :)

  • 9 years ago

    by Sam

    Congratulations on the win, Karla. This poem is beautiful, even though I might not even know what it is truly about. It deserved to win :)

    The one thing that caught my attention is the way that it is typed. I do not know if you intended to do it this way or not, but the words after the periods are not capitalized, so I thought it was worthy to bring it to your attention. If you did this intentionally, then do not listen to a word I am saying; maybe being lowercase is a symbol of something. I just thought that it was weird that the first word of the poem was capitalized, but none of the others weren't.

    You use such beautiful imagery in this poem. In every stanza I feel like I am there along with the person who this is written about.

    disenchantment squeezes the soul,
    life vomits the truth and the blame.
    the limit has no limit and you cross
    the boundaries of sanity, seeking solace,
    seeking for what can't be found in love
    or faith.

    ^ I would have to say that this is my favorite stanza, but I cannot exactly tell you why. I guess I just like the use of the word "vomit" even though if you are actually doing it, it is kind of disgusting. Vomit, in this poem, I think is the strongest word; it tells a lot about what the person is going through. It seems to be saying that life is forcing the person to see the truth and to feel the blame, because that is what "vomiting" does...it makes stuff come up.

    I see this poem being about society in general and how it can be so cruel to some of its inhabitants. You are a gifted writer. Congrats on the win again.

    Beautiful.

    ~S