This is the poem that won the highest award, "The Certificate Of Excellence",
in the 2002 Detroit Free Press Senior Poetry Division.

The Colors That Hide My Tears

by Sarah Wyse

copyright © 2001

Shrooms, ecstasy, pot and crack
All those she takes-and don't exclude smack.
"LSD is the best; you can't beat that,
Acid takes you on a trip where there's no turning back".

These are the words she said to me,
As she's sitting in the corner, barley able to see.
When she opens her eyes all she sees is colors.
Tigers and clowns and many others.

She can't walk straight, her head isn't clear
Nothing is what she sees when she looks in the mirror.
Sometimes she cries, sometimes she sings.
She says the drugs take her away on wings.

Her world is fake; it's all in her head.
Why can't she live pure and free instead?
She says she doesn't want her life to be controlled,
But here she is, letting her soul be sold.

She tries to run, she tries to hide,
She begs for someone to confide.
It's overwhelming her life, her courage, her hope.
Her head aches, trying to find a way to cope.

Depression and pain begin to well up.
She's stuck in a game that has no luck.
Her body's so sick, she just lies in bed.
She feels no hope; she might as well be dead.

She cuts herself- but not to die.
Just relieve the pain inside.
She can't seem to sleep; she's up all night.
She takes some pills, and begins to lose sight.

One by one the pills kick in,
They take her to a world where she's never been.
Instead of colors and wicked dreams,
They take her to a place of more light it seems.

Early the next morning the police give me a call,
I couldn't believe it, not at all.
They told me calmly that she was gone,
But I knew in my heart she had been gone so long.

Of all the amazing colors she would see,
Why did she never see how much she hurt me?