3rd Place Winner - Meredith DeLong

“At Least My Pride is Shrinking”

My heart is growing bigger than my head,

Pushing the confines of my ribcage,

The fidgety, thumb-twiddling doctor said.

Symptoms first showed after I read

A story where the hero dies on the last page.

My heart is growing bigger than my head.

Straining my solar plexus and spread-

ing like vines through veins. I can't disengage.

The ever kind but hurried doctor said.

To stop rewriting my will, no planning ahead,

Just have some fun--but by this stage

My heart is growing bigger than my head.

Please just miss me a little when I'm dead.

This runs in our family alongside pent up rage,

The exasperated, on-edge doctor said.

My chest is ripping, brain's a haze of red,

Like I'm not the actor, I'm just sitting backstage.

My heart is growing bigger than my head,

The tired-of-me doctor said.