What I Couldn't Kill
(The Hunger Games)
The perspective of President Snow- a poison.
Two girls danced on death’s tight wire, 
One clothed in song, the other in quiver. 
Each with a gift to kindle fire.
Lucy Gray- my mockingbird muse, 
All charm and guile in melodic hues. 
A performer at heart, forced to hunt, 
To survive, to kill and to run. 
She loved with lies and ran with rain- 
A lesson carved into my vein.
Then came Katniss, rough and true, 
With arrows sharp and a colder hue. 
A hunter at heart, forced to perform, 
To smile and wave, and hide her storm. 
A fire too wild to own or mould, 
Too brash, too stubborn to be sold.
Still- both defied, both disobeyed, 
Both laughed beneath the roles I made. 
Both knew the weight of wanting more, 
And walked right through my golden door.
They never met, yet felt the same- 
Two mirrors whispering my name. 
Each with a gift to twist the game, 
To set the roses all aflame.
One vanished in a shimmered song, 
The other stayed too loud, too long. 
One slipped away, a ghost in flight, 
The other set the world alight.
And still I cough on rose and blood, 
Two girls who stirred a rebel flood. 
One vanished, one I could not tame- 
But both, in truth, wore Hunger’s name.