In Portrait's Poetry Corner you can read a variety of great poems from the Portrait writing team and visitors to the site. If you'd like to have your poem published here, e-mail it to portraitmagazine@yahoo.co.nz with the subject 'Poetry Submission'

STUCK WITH YOU
By Judy

I gave up everything
thought having you would make it up
I was losing myself
becoming someone else
and went down, down
trust me, it wasn't fun
to see the people I love happy without me
this isn't how things should be

I'm stuck, stuck with you
they said it wouldn't last
but you're having a blast
if this was another time
I'd run to wonderland
but this isn't a fairytale
it's something that can't go away
if I woke up
so here I am
stuck with you
in this time
in this place
I can't take it anymore

so many unfinished tales I left behind to hear you complain
so many laughs turned to tears
when you'd share your secrets and dreams
and so much love I had for you was gone
when I learned every breath you breathe is a lie

This Is Not a Sonnet, This Is Not for You
By Karen Labsan

Guitar strings snap under my shaking hand
As I try to capture with melodies
Used-to-be's of our love that was once grand
And all I found crazy that I now miss.

And so goes for my attempt at poems too,
The ink runs out before a stanza ends,
A stanza that should be 'bout me and you –
No bridge, no conclusion; the message it sends.

I figured I wasn't meant to sing or write
Of the musk or mess you have left me with,
Rather I should paint a scene in clear light;
Paint red what your memory made me hid.

Here's something I made and here's something true:
It's not a sonnet nor is it for you.

LAST
By Karen Labsan

forever's a moment with you framed
my hand in yours on my cheek
with your every heartbeat, i breathe in your warmth
bask in the safety of the moonlit balcony
the gleam in your orbs dances with the breeze
as our certainty sways to the rhythm of our hearts
what passes unsung does not remain unheard
oh, my ears thump with the silent scream of my shaking core
love, love is fleeing like a raven, nevermore to be seen
envelope me in the nostalgia of your arms
the tighter we embrace, the more you fade
grasping consummation every here and now
lose the last ounce of you in the dim of my dreams
when can we finally together be?
and so, with the faint birth of the sun's first rays
and all these fragments of what could have been and what should be
forever's framed, forever ends.