Death’s dance was feverous
A passion that burnt everything she touched
The motions of her movements spinning
Her infection making them blush

And though she longed to dance as a pair
Every partner would slip through her grasp
For a second Death embraced them
The memory leaving her in a trance

Shimmering figures lined her path
Beckoning her to go on forward
And so Death happily took another step
Her veil trailing down the aisle of the dead

All she wished was to eternally dance
With someone or something in her arms
And still, they all fell grey in colour
Limp limbs frozen from her charm

After life, no one would meet death again
Some even prayed for her to stay away
Why this was, she could not understand
Since all she wanted was to show them her dance.

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There’s always a first time for everything. I’ve decided to do two things for the first time in forever: first, to write a poem, and second, to write an article. If you are reading this you may be thinking something along the lines of ‘hmm this doesn’t seem right’. Don’t worry, I feel the same way. I think it would be relevant for me to mention that back in school, I would always pick the storywriting task over the poetry task. So, why have I decided to write a poem for once? The truth is, I don’t really know. I do, however, know that I love a challenge, and I’m someone who occasionally likes to step out of her comfort zone. Where I get these bursts of confidence is absolutely unbeknownst to me. But hey, now I’ve got ‘written an article and a poem for my university’s blog’ under my belt.

Back to the point, although I can’t find an explanation for why I decided to write a poem, I can explain a little bit about the contents of the poem. As you can probably tell, I decided to focus on the theme of ‘death’. But more importantly, I wanted to portray death as someone who longs for something that they could never have. This is why I gave death the pronouns ‘she/her’.

Not only did this make it slightly easier for me to write, it also starts to personify death as though ‘she’ is just another person going through a never-ending tragedy.

For the first stanza I wanted to utilise words that could be associated with illness. For example; feverous, burning, spinning, infection. I did this to reflect the general idea people have when thinking about death. An attempt was made to make her seem a bit wholesome as I mention her effect of making people ‘blush’, as though she was something to be romanticised, and not feared.

For the second stanza I moved on to talk about how death is longing for a partner. But despite this desire, no one ever seems to stay with her. As we know, the loss of a loved one means (most of the time) someone has been robbed of their partner. I asked myself, ‘why is this not the same with death?’ Maybe she’s tired of constantly bringing people close to her, only for them to leave her so quickly. Which is why she only has her memories of these people to hold onto, much like how people who experience this type of loss only have their memories left to comfort them.

Continuing on with the theme of partners, the first thing that came to mind was ‘marriage’. To me, marriage is the pinnacle of choosing your ‘forever person’. However, I decided to take a different approach instead and make it as though death herself was on a personal journey, searching for perfect match. ‘Shimmering figures’ is in reference to all the souls she has already stolen, and how they’re a reminder to her of all the souls she has yet to seize.

I then moved on to explain the consequences of her desires. Words such as ‘still’, ‘grey’, and ‘limp’ were used to emphasise the only real effect she had. Her ‘charm’ was so potent, it ended their lives. For my last stanza, I wanted to end it by acknowledging the religious end for a lot of people. ‘After life, no one would meet death again’ was a nod to the idea of a heaven most people believe is their last resting place. And lastly, I ended my poem with a line which I thought brought back an air of innocence to ‘death’ – the fact that she had only one thing she dreamed of doing, but that one goal was keeping everyone away.