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Daniela Dragomir, 30 years old, is participating in the 6th International Literary Creation Competition, from Arad, Romania. We are grateful for the participation and wish her success.

I.	Unraveling

“I want to break up,”
he said, calm,
in the park, by the lake.

Meanwhile, in my mind, a bomb went off.
There was fire everywhere.
Every one of my memories
was vibrating, shaking...
fleeing into the flames.

“It’s boring for me.
I don’t know why I ever thought
it would work between us.”
he said,
checking the time.

A meteorite strikes inside my head,
from somewhere above,
from among the stars.
It lands in my world
and creates an immense tsunami.

It’s a warning.
If I don’t control myself,
it will wash me away.
I’ll lose my mind,
lose my control.

I try to run,
I try to hide…
But I can’t escape it.

The bombing continues.
My memories scatter in panic.
What is right? What is wrong?
What is left?
What is right?

The grayness spreads
through the entire world inside me.


II.	Collapse 

On the outside, he sees
a humble woman looking back at him
from beneath her gorgeous lashes,
in a beautiful red dress,
smiling.

“Sounds good.” I say.
“Nice.” he replies,
standing up, dusting off his pants.

He leaves.

I stay a while.

A tsunami tears through my world,
clearing everything in its path:
memories, stale smells,
false smiles, lost time,
and finally, me.


III.	Phoenix

I am reborn,
right here, by the lake.

The ashes will stay for a while.
I’ll rebuild.

And it will take
a long, long time
to forget, to forgive…

Step by step,
brick by brick,
memory by memory,
I will reconstruct myself.

My world will be beautiful again.
It will be green.
It will be colored.

Full of red roses and purple lilacs,
of smiles and laughter,
of me,
and a future you.

Someone who waters the plants
and kisses the pain away.

But today,
the grayness stays.

I’ll learn from it.
And cry…
when no one’s watching.