ROUND THREE: 6-quasi vs. 7-torrent

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Voter Instructions:

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Things to Consider in Making a Choice:

• How well the poem incorporates the authlete’s assigned word.
• Technical elements: meter, rhyme, form, shape, and other poetic standards.
• Creativity: wordplay, imagery, unusual approach, etc.
• Subtle elements that make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
• Your overall response: emotional reaction such as admiration, tears, laughter, terror, or some indefinable feeling.

Here are the poems:

6-quasi
Dear Bully
By Laura Shovan

Sometimes when we pass in the hall
I hear you say, “She’s no one at all.”
I’m invisible, though we both wear
a hoodie, jeans, the same long hair.

Showing off for your latest boy,
you scan the crowd for some new toy
to play with, pick apart and tease.
I melt into shadows. I hide. I freeze.

I’m quasi human, not quite here.
When you look at me, I disappear.

Note: The title refers to Dear Bully: 70 Authors Tell Their Stories, Edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones.

vs.

7-torrent
The Vegan and the Vampire
By Marcus Ewert

A vegan came to lecture me, he ranted on and on;
I flapped my velvet cape at him and told him to be gone.

He came again at daybreak, when it’s time for me to rest –
He yelled that meat was murder, then he flung a chicken breast.

He tampered with my pantry – my poor bats flew out in droves!
“It’s just fresh herbs and greens!” he said. Yes…and garlic cloves!

He pestered me with pamphlets on the larceny of milk,
And shredded half my jacket – just because it’s made of silk!

He ambushed me in alleys, and he cornered me in crypts;
He broke into my boudoir, frothing spittle on his lips;

“You live off HUMAN BLOOD!!” he shrieked. “Your diet is abhorrent!”
I confess I ripped his head off, and lapped at the red torrent.

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