A/N- Written for the August prompt "Broken" on the Starvation forum. Check it out if you'd like to enter! Also check out the forum for the Summer 2010 Hunger Games Fanfiction Awards, the results of which have been released! Both forums can be found on the forum page for THG Fanfiction on this website. And thanks as always go to LoveTheBoyWithTheBread, for being an incredible beta and friend!
A little dingy table,
In a little dirty room,
Full of little broken people,
And an ever-present gloom.
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They could be any groups of friends,
That sat 'round playing cards,
If not for the glinting of unhappy ends,
And the tang of broken hearts.
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Look in his eyes, so dark, so hard,
Do you find it hard to believe,
That this boy once his heart didn't guard,
And had never seen someone bleed?
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This poor man is Haymitch,
A less than tasteful chap,
But when your hear the wine's sick swish,
You must cut him some slack.
[-]
A woman mutters feebly,
And then she trails off.
She once was a genius, believe me,
But now all that is lost.
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This one is Wiress,
Who can no longer speak,
She's brushed to the side like a common pest,
By almost all she meets.
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Another speaks for her now,
As he rubs his glasses clean.
Even among his "friends" he's quiet and cowed,
He stays silent and listens to the ringing screams.
[-]
Beetee seldom lifts his eyes,
There's nothing left to see.
Each soul he meets is one of them in disguise,
One of the children who died for him to go free.
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A young man struggles through the door,
In silent misery wrapped.
He seems the perfect paragon of man,
But nothing could be less apt.
[-]
Finnick Odair hides behind
His dashing smile and fabulous lovers,
But his face hides a tainted mind,
Too dark to show to others.
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It wasn't enough he had to kill,
Something he found unappealing.
He had swiftly lost her as well,
His true love so unfeeling.
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Annie had loved him,
Once upon a time,
But her Games stole something irreplaceable.
In simple terms: Her mind.
[-]
As Finnick pulled Annie behind him,
Another followed close behind.
This broken girl and boy were her burden,
But she truly did not mind.
[-]
Mags kept in her own desires,
As a way of reparation.
She was haunted by the cruelty and murder so dire,
She herself had committed against her generation.
[-]
As the chairs were pulled in around the table,
One girl sat in silence.
Though "sarcastic" and "spiteful" were her labels,
She was only cowering from violence.
[-]
Everyone Johanna loved had gone,
Just when she'd needed them most.
Her fiery shell hid her inward death,
And how she was a living ghost.
[-]
A number of them would die tomorrow,
Of this they were only too sure.
It would be their second trip to see Death Row,
But no fear was present there.
[-]
Those broken people gathered close,
To plan their great escape.
Their lives were over, for the most,
But the world was theirs to shape.
[-]
There are many kinds of brokenness,
Of missing minds and tear filled nights,
And stinking bottles clenched in fists.
But the truly broken find strength to fight.
[-]
These people here had lost so much.
They had been infused with hate.
They turned their eyes to their torturers,
Because for revenge it is never too late.
[-]
The Capitol had made them weapons,
Had made them kill and suffer.
But now they'd turned to save their world,
And just perhaps each other.
[-]
You must be careful how you go,
On whom you trod, and how,
Or you might end up conquered by those you break,
The Capitol was going to now.
[-]
Their beasts through their fingers slipped,
Broken pieces falling free,
As glinting eyes and thin-pressed lips,
Turn to face the memory.
[-]
As the friends dispersed to go that night,
They never would reconvene.
For many would be lost in the fight.
But what might that truly mean?
[-]
It isn't till we break that we can heal,
And broken, yes, they were.
It is pain that we learn to feel,
The joy of peace so pure.
[-]
From their brokenness they found beauty,
And triumph was born from pain.
And as the sun rose on their freedom, they truly
Learned to live again.