Notes About The Poem
Written on July 28th, 2025 for Robert James Liguori's Carnival Nights Contest.
Carnival Nights
There was a chill in the air that night, as the taste of spun cotton candy and stale popcorn floated through the breeze. Lifeless clouds hung in the sky, moving swiftly past an ever-broken moon. Remnants of rain clung to weeping blades of grass, as a shattered heart cracked under a ribcage in disbelief. The humming of electric lights overwhelmed. Crowds of people evaporated, then formed again—still standing with the static of a phone in hand.
Reality snatched your mind back into submission.
Frantically searching the worn leather pockets of your brown jacket, you look for a tiny slip of paper. The number must be here. You know you kept it—yet it eludes you still. It’s getting harder to see now, as the tears flood down your heaving cheeks.
At last, you stumble upon the paper—accidentally giving yourself a papercut. Drops of blood mix with tears as you try to dial the number.
A stern voice answers the line.
“What can I do for you, ma’am?” she asks.
“May I talk to the doctor, please?” you answer.
And within the confines of a swift second, your whole world crumbles. The joy of the carnival around you nauseates you. Head spinning, heart pounding, you are once more alone in this twisted world—
As the slick summer roads took away the other half of your soul.
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