2014 Junior Authors Poetry Contest Winner Category 2
Nicole Kroushl, Age 17, North Carolina, USA
Mood Lighting
Two hundred feet below me
In an outdoor pool lit up the color I imagine antifreeze
Is a silhouette.
A moment passes
A forbidden firework glides into the sky and explodes, a dancer in the dark
The silhouette splits into two shadows,
Glow-in-the-dark, indistinguishable.
I think that if it were you and I down there
In an iridescent pool––under a sky lit by fireflies on acid––
Sand on our skin, salt in our hair, midnight on our lips
The two of us would shine
So much brighter
Than all of that mood lighting.
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I am an aspiring author and publisher, a cat enthusiast, a pasta addict, and a rising college student. I have been writing since elementary school, but only recently began to write poetry. “Mood Lighting” is one of many poems that I wrote in response to falling in love for the first time. – Nicole Kroushl
