Failure’s Chase

She runs away from the darkness that lurks,
hoping to find a sun-drenched room that welcomes

the year with tender-soft warmth. Failure is a monster,
and it is enfolding her tendrils of thought and the

shadows that define her. It is a fragmented little thing,
a carcass fresh out of its grave, a vacuum of souls meant to

seep joy from already shattered hearts. It only seeks for more.
But she will not give it that. For years, she wore sadness like a coat

with despondency coiled around her throat until shadows
only spoke. Her voice is but a tiny squeak that cries out

from the abyss from which a single soul is out of reach.
The ground trembles at every drop let out by the darkness

of the sky that had held her close, that caressed her with tears
instead of hope. She was stripped out of her strength and

confidence by the people she cared the most, by those who
had told her: These surely won’t fit.

Find something else to wear. With a fresh set of clothes in hand,
she wore them like it was hers, but unfamiliarity was its

strongest scent, which she knew she could not wear.
She’d rather be stripped naked from wrongness than to

wear clothes that weren’t hers. There were so many grievances,
but she knew she couldn’t speak. By inserting each foot into

the crevice of the mountain’s side, it was already enough for her to
bear how erroneous it must be to be a ghost of someone else

they initially hoped would be she. Enough is enough.
There are days and years ahead in the path that lay beyond, which is

worth the chase from the failure that had chased her
from the start.

By Jillian Lopez

Biography:

Jillian Lopez is a 16-year-old student from Manila, Philippines. Currently, she specializes in the Humanities and Social Sciences as a junior in senior high school, where she is pursuing her love for law and literature. She is a correspondent for her high school publication entitled Facets, and she has been publishing news and features articles, as well as editorials, for nearly two years. Jillian may be found at her book blog http://jilliansbooks.blogspot.com.