Disheveled and dressed in rags.
He sang like he'd hit rock bottom.
His heart ripped to shreds.
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: 2nd place 2026
When everything is torn away from you,
when the tapestry of your life is unraveled thread by thread,
what is yours to hold?
Your name,
the one with a cultural meaning that has become heavily shadowed,
is not yours anymore.
That was one of the first things they replaced.
Your native language is not yours, either.
Seclusion and shame are now the price to pay for speaking your mother tongue.
Your clothing is not even yours,
all garments of a foreign land.
They are constricting and unfamiliar.
Your education is no longer yours,
as they've changed the school system to only serve them.
You are left with nothing and cannot hold on to anything.
The tapestry has been ripped to shreds and is thought to be beyond repair.
How could you maintain your sense of identity,
when they proclaim it's not yours anymore?
As I look into his hazel eyes,
Unfolds a story about his past life.
He was thirteen,
Leaving his life behind,
In exchange for a brighter future,
Putting on the mask of the american dream
But he was young,
He was lost,
He was left alone at a stranger’s house,
Oh how hungry he was
Still the food wasn’t his,
So he didn’t eat for three days.
He was laughed at,
Stepped on,
Ripped to shreds,
Uncovering all that was beneath the mask of the american dream.
So he dragged himself to a needle,
Tears streaming down his remains
Trying to sew what was left of him, but it was never the same.
Suffocated with work,
His body was drenched in pain.
Ripping open his patchwork of remains,
He would never be the same.
He would close his eyes,
Hoping to be embraced by his mothers arms,
He only wished to be home again,
He was only thirteen.
DARK PART OF THE SOUL
Take me away
To a place unknown
A place of comfort an unknown zone
Tear me apart
Ripe my soul
Hand it back
Ripped to shreds
Take my life, take it hard
Find a way to bring me back
Dark part of the soul
My darkest time, give me love give me joy
Accepting me as I am
Broken hearted in discord
My darkest hour, filled with pain
Bringing me down to the lowest point
Have I ever been here before
Have I ever got back up
Bringing me down to my lowest point
Your love ripped me open
Torn me apart
Showed me pain right in the heart
Take me back to the love we once had
Lifting me higher towards the light
If only you seen
Me as I am
If only you cared
To take a chance
Only then will I ever survive
The darkest part of my soul
It sure is tough
When you're never enough
When the silence
Is worse than violence
Each and every day
I just get in my own way
I no longer have tears
Only overwhelming fears
So I turn to the booze
Knowing I'm going to lose
But nobody cares
How I fare
My existence is inconsequential
But somehow living is essential
And despite the strife
I still can't take my own life
My mind is full of sin
But one day I hope to be fine again
But days grow shorter and shadows longer
And my will to live isn't getting stronger
Every friendship I ripped to shreds
I'm alive but my social life is dead
It sure is tough
When you're never enough
But you'll never be enough
And this truth is really tough
When you gave up on yourself
Your heart was put out of reach on the shelf
Closed eyes cannot see
So the heart will never truly be free
But perhaps what makes it so tough
Is knowing you were once good enough
I knew these halting words were coming,
so why are they still so numbing?
I expected them this whole time,
so why does it still feel like a violent crime?
Like your words pierced deep like a knife,
and piece by piece my heart ripped to shreds.
Like your words were an attempt on my life,
and I was abandoned and left for dead.
An Autumn wind blew an acorn
from the paws of a squirrel
right into the pond
without so much as a twirl
Then the wind knocked down a sapling
that had recently sprouted
cackling madly as a witch
at the foliage it routed…
Heralding a long bitter winter
Madame Wind howled as fierce
as a wolf ripped to shreds by a bear
~ primal instincts ravaging its lair
Rapids Ahead
I hear the canyon echo the cascading eddies’ volume,
Growing louder as I paddle closer to run the descent,
To enter the lake past water, hidden rocks, and seething foam,
While an eagle soaring the gorge shrieks an impending portent.
The walls are too steep for portaging the cataract in front,
So either I seek another route or forge on straight ahead.
To challenge destiny bewilders the passive goer’s want
When serenity in life is a more secure goal instead.
Cannot the way be more perilous when fate meets its limits?
I glide my canoe between the boulders, avoiding the onslaught
Of being ripped to shreds when thrown about in the driving rapids;
I break, turn with the oar this way and that and never ease off!
Then my fear subsides when the waters calm as I ride the crest;
I’ve come this far and have further to go before I can rest.
"I carry your heart with me(I carry it in my heart)I am never without it.
Quote _ by E.E. Cummings
Lovely Lottie, you were my heart and life
Living to make mischief never complied
Antics so constant she enjoyed the strife
Jack Russell terrier puffed up with pride.
Postman received a particular bark
Then quiet until those letters did drop
All hell would break loose the dog went berserk
Mail ripped to shreds until frenzy did stop.
Sneaking upstairs she would jump onto bed
Brown eyes shone with most sincere pleading look
In truth, no problem she slept like the dead
Smiling I settled with favourite book
So many years and such a faithful friend
Heartbreak so painful when her life did end.
Writing Challenge
In My Heart- S Forms
Sonnet/Pet
Sponsored
by:
Constance La France
05/09/2022
Pixabay image by: Annabel_P
They tell me I must not share this secret
I have discovered after so much searching
I must keep it to myself lest I spoil
the twist that takes place three quarters
of the way through as if life is little more
than a movie and I an actress cast
in a starring role forced by the studio
to sign an NDA in my blood stating
I sacrifice my soul to Hades and give my
body up to be ripped to shreds by the
sharp teeth of the three heads of Cerberus
if I dare to have the audacity to violate it
So I seat myself silently at a table in a library
or at a bus stop or a train station
or on a bench in a park where parents
watch over their children as they play
flipping through old photo albums
filled with pictures of people who
have long since passed away along
with places which no longer exist today
showing them to anyone that sits down
beside me before asking if they recognize
any of the many they see then when they
invariably answer, “No. What does it matter?”
I reply, “Exactly”
CINDERELLA’S CLOSET
spawned-jeans ripped to shreds
moth-eaten-sweater distressed ~
fit teen in fashion
1/5/2022
Open Fields
We are but paper planes to birdie wings
songs left unsung
battles left unwon
I am but a fly on the wall watching with objectivity my words may get misconstrued
But they stand in truth
I hold onto the threads of my youth
And those unraveling ,
Ripped to shreds
An empty vessel
Wrinkling with wear
Windows mirror souls
At the door
The terror of night
The greed of spite
So I carry on
As an apple of the earth
Oh how we’ve grown
In open fields, wildflowers bloom and weeds take root
A rare breed of monstrosity
In the very thread of our being
I’ve awoken to the glee of canicules
Sprinklers sprinkling summer fun
Young lad run tracing droplets of summer sun
Marckincia Jean
Free Verse
10/11/2021
A nation divided, its fabric ripped to shreds
Like a clipper ship’s sails in a hurricane
Its rudder wrenched from its stern
Leaving its course to the mercy of its abuser
The fate of its crew dependent on its strength
And its ability to weather the storm
To once again sail proudly and majestically
Over the treacherous seas of public opinion.
Oh, the pain of a hurtful word,
To the heart everything becomes so blurred.
Once the dart has been thrown,
And from the heart you can feel it groan.
What should have been a sunny day,
Now has been turned to gray.
No more can I hear children laughing,
Instead old arguments rehashing.
All my emotions, laying ripped to shreds on the floor,
the agony I feel all the way to the core.
I have always heard that time heals,
I do not know; I think it only conceals.
Oh, the pain of a hurtful word.
© Deborah Seale Miller
What does grief feel like?
The world comes to an uncomfortable silence
nothing feels real
it's like a mask placed over your head-
a mind game
one you can't break out of
it's the lonely gazes
hoping to see you in my peripherals
it feels like part of me is gone-
ripped to shreds internally
forever looking for the missing piece-
of my soul
it feels like a hollow chest
after you've cried too much
for too long
it feels like everything has lost meaning
lost hope
That once warm feeling, the hope
evaporated to ice
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.