Kellen Hunnicutt, of West High School, reciting his winning poem at the 2023 Poetry Out Loud competition.

Counterfeit

By Kellen Hunnicutt


Mother Earth has been replaced and I pray for a Second Coming.  
I thought I smelled Rain this morning, but it was just my Febreze. I licked the air and savored the
taste of a new god. I thought I was cold this morning, I thought I felt Snow singing with the
Breeze, embraced in Heaven and endless light, cooled and condensed into what now melts  
so gently into my hair, sticking to it like rich, gold, smooth Sap,
but it was the ac, the air of the creator.  Make every true color of the Rainbow real but not real,
be a different version of Life, an everlasting illusion, a candied, televised replacement of when
the Winds once waltzed with the Leaves as they fell, the world half-painted in the warmth of the 
Sunset, the Plums and Peaches that once burnt the Sky each evening.
But where is the Sun these days? I remember clearly when you warmed me so. Now replaced
with infertile, heatless glows. I haven’t heard a Bird’s song in ages. Am I made from the mold of
a flesh-made mech-made something or did Star-kissed Earth birth me? I’m really ridiculous,
aren’t I? Calling out for, praying to Mother. Why can’t I realize I killed Her too? We all hold
knives when the sweetness of simplicity calls.
Mother cannot fix the problem when the world is made of twinkles but not Stars, 
made of pesticides, but not Dewdrops, made of asphalt, but not Soil,
made of metal, but not Love.
How will we revive the Song of the Earth?

Kellen Hunnicutt, who attends West High School, recited his award-winning Original Poem at the 2023 Poetry Out Loud state competition. Brynn Patterson, of Viewmont High School, also performed her winning poem at the March 8, 2023 event.