Jasper Ballard’s work about loss has appeared here before (Move On,Childhood Lost) and has been included in Lisa Marie Basile’s Vwa: Poems for Haiti, proceeds of which are being contributed to relief funds for the victims of the Haitian earthquake. In keeping with his previous work, the landscape here runs bleak, but his work still retains a vein of hope.
Second Chance
By Jasper Ballard
The words weren’t past my lips
And I already wanted to take them back
I can’t
As I was saying it, I couldn’t believe
What I was hearing
How could I say I can’t?
This was my dream come true
The pinnacle
Happiness!
And yet head reigned over heart
How foolish
Why does that happen?
They say regret is a wasted emotion
No change can come from regret
So then why am I full of this wasted,
Useless emotion?
This unending source of pain
Torture
All power lies elsewhere
She holds all the cards
So cliche, but so true
My only hope
One day
Is for a
Second chance
