Swim to shore
Swim with gills
Gills that strangle
Gills prolonged to lock
Lock in memories
Lock crowded castles
Castles I organized
Castles made to shatter
Shatter with growth
Shatter sans indication
Indication I missed
Indication written in lines
Lines I didn’t choose
Lines control nobody
Nobody who scorches
Nobody to blame
Blame them
Blame makes me Helium
Helium for a split second
Helium lifts balloons
Balloons infiltrating buildings
Balloons draining tissues
Tissues I’m afraid to own
Tissues tethering portions
Tethers bind my wings
Tethers weave finite threads
Threads to look after
Threads ebbing patterns
Patterns I stack
Patterns restrict voids
Voids with doorways
Voids flooding bloody walls
Walls devour neon skies
Walls howl at new moons
Moons flutter at symmetry
Moons press illuminate
Illuminate my forged path
Illuminate tarred cracks
Cracks form constellations
Cracks stab the soul
Soul that doesn’t feel mine
Soul fleeing structures
Structures shifting with me
Structures encase horizons
Horizons I rarely curve
Horizons where I sip spirits
Spirits with picturesque edges
Spirits brewing dichotomies
Dichotomies…
Edges…

Rules:

• A blitz has 50 lines, written in short, cliché phrases, without a rhyme scheme or syllable limitations.

• For 48 lines, the poem follows a pattern. Two lines start with the same word—the last word of the line before it.

• The last two lines are different. Line 49 is the last word of line 48, and line 50 is the last word of line 47, followed by an ellipsis.

• The title is the first word of line 3 and the first word of line 47, joined with a conjunction or preposition.

A big thank you to Juniper Less for bringing Blitz back.