This Is Classified

Winning Entry by jaguar

An Apology at the End of a Relationship

So I am lonely and wrong,
my mouth forms the words
like whales breaking the surface
of water, pink inside grey caves.

Iâ€™m an expanse of ocean
away from tipping my sorry
into your warm ear, my tears,
rivulet nose to chin, drop off.

I need to be cold and wet
because this mistake scalded me,
my skin crisped away from my flesh,
everything was rendered down
to spears, blubber, whales.

Just as our feelings
are meant to become
secret from each other, my regret,
this is classified,
not for you to know.

Endings are aggressive things,
seagull shrieks and swoops,
this sorry tears me so, yet
it must emerge
though you won't hear it.

Featured Entry by Avian

I pass your plaque each morning.
Alan Turing; Code Breaker, Pioneer,
born here.
You lived in this country like a bird
nesting in the mouths of gargoyles.
I donâ€™t know where your death is marked.

When a kiss splits my lips,
when a touch bruises skin,
I remember you.

When I feel the love of another man,
when I feel its urgency and joy,
I honour you.

Featured Entry by runner duck

CLASSI

He was a secret

Black with pleading eyes
and a sniffling nose
he had to be hidden

Classified they called him
and it stuck
even as she saw him for the first time
and wept tears of remembering
'But,
he's so like Sammie'
she had said smiling and crying
'It's my Sammie'

Funny how she could remember the name of her first dog
but not that of her first born son
but he didn't mind
not any more
For now his only worry was how to get
Classi in and out
without the others seeing.
No pets they had said
NO PETS.

He didn't care though
not really
to see her smile
to see her eyes shine
and the dogs tail wag
was all that mattered.

His wife squeezed his hand later in the car
as Classi slept
in the back
worn out by all the fuss.

And his mother slept
in the home
with a tennis ball under her pillow
and the faintest of grins on her ninety three year old
paper thin face.