Today, we are featuring Inklings Book Contest 2024 finalist Audrey Lee! She finished 10th grade this past school year and wrote a chilling pantoum poem called “Blurred.” Our judges loved the short, spare lines that gradually reveal the gravity of the situation. Continue below to enjoy her poem in digital book or plain text form.
WARNING: Contains alcohol use, blood, and death. Read at your own discretion.
on that day,
i couldn’t see.
i was drunk, you know,
and it was dark out.
i couldn’t see
what was going on.
it was dark out,
and there was too much rain.
what was going on?
my spectacles were blurred
from too much rain.
i couldn’t see.
my spectacles were blurred
my vision was blurred
i heard a gasp
a thud—
but my vision was blurred;
my glasses fell—
a thud,
a groan;
my glass fell;
red splattered the ground.
a thud
as my body landed.
red splattered the ground;
my life seeped away.
as my body landed,
everything cried out
as my life seeped away
that day
everyone cried out
but i was drunk, you know
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