WE ARE GOLDEN--DEAD POETS SOCIETY

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

That night's meeting began with the usual opener and distribution of snacks and cigarettes. 

"Okay, whoever keeps bringing raisins, we need to talk," Scarlett grumbled, staring directly at Cameron. The red-headed boy shrunk under her intimidating gaze. 

"Hey, I like raisins."

"Then eat them and don't take my cookies."

"Kids, kids," Charlie interrupted them, earning a glare from the bickering pair.

"Alright, who wants to go first?"

Camille stood up, accepting the revered book from Neil.

"Leaves Compared with Flowers. By Robert Frost.

A tree's leaves may be ever so good,
So may its bark, so may it's wood;
But unless you put the right thing to its root
It never will show much flower or fruit.

But I may be one who does not care
Ever to have tree bloom or bear.
Leaves for smooth and bark for rough,
Leaves and bark may be tree enough.

Some giant trees have bloom so small
They might as well have none at all.
Late in life, I have come on fern.
Now lichens are due to have their turn.

I bade men tell me which in brief,
Which is fairer, flower, or leaf.
They did not have the wit to say,
Leaves by night and flowers by day.

Leaves and bark, leaves and bark,
To lean against and hear in the dark.
Petals I may have once pursued.
Leaves are all my darker mood."

She curtseyed mockingly and resumed her seat beside Neil, laughing slightly as her friends applauded.  

Meeks went next.

"Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful indeed

And worthy of acceptation. Fire is bright,
Let temple burn, or flax; an equal light
Leaps in the flame from cedar-plank or weed:
And love is fire. And when I say at need
I love thee . . . mark! . . . I love thee—in thy sight
I stand transfigured, glorified aright,
With conscience of the new rays that proceed
Out of my face toward thine. There's nothing low
In love, when love the lowest: meanest creatures
Who love God, God accepts while loving so.
And what I feel, across the inferior features
Of what I am, doth flash itself, and show
How that great work of Love enhances Nature's."

Azalea blushed as the others applauded and Pitts nudged her teasingly. Meeks regained his spot next to her, and she curled up under his arm. For the first time in her life, she felt safe. No one could hurt her. 

"You write that, Meeks?" Neil asked.

"Elizabeth Barrett Browning."

Camille was trying to catch Scarlett's eye, but the blonde girl was determinedly engaged in conversation with Lilith. 

Charlie and Knox performed a duet version of She Walks In Beauty, Knox lost in thought, his companion only seeing Lilith. And she only saw him, his brown eyes meeting hers, so full of love and compassion you would have sworn they'd known each other for years. 

When they finished, Camille looked at Scarlett expectantly. The blonde girl rolled her eyes but stood up. Only Camille could see her hands trembling as she pulled a tattered piece of paper out of her pocket. 

"An original piece by Scarlett Armstrong."

A chorus of whooping echoed through the cave, causing the usually stoic girl to blush.

"Alright, I really don't want to read this, But I told Cami I would. So here we go."

She cleared her throat.

"A girl made of honey

sugar and spice

everything nice

its cliche to say

how I feel this way

yet she won't wait

in a state

she loves him

and i love her

not like jack and rose

but like juliet and juliet

like ancient sappho

like two flowers

growing parallel in the moonlight."

Silence. 

The blonde girl relit her cigarette and plopped down next to Lilith and Charlie, subtly wiping her eyes. 

"Well that was amazing."

"Thank you, Neil. Would you like to go next?"

A/N OKAY SO

a) no shit on the poem i wrote it

b) this is kinda a filler chapter

becauz i don't have enough time

or energy to write the yawp scene 

today

A/N 1/1/22

OKAY SORRRY I CHANGED THE POEM IT HAD TO HAPPEN
FOR THE PLOT MY APOLOGIES ITS NOT AS GOOD
AS THE LAST ONE BUT IT NEEDS TO SET THE STAGEGEGEG