Author's Note: Having been inspired by poetry in many fandoms, I've decided to try writing poetry fanfic. I've written poetry (without much success) for many years—to many to count. So here's the best attempt! Please review!
Something I am
I wasn't a quitter.
Not in fear, in shame, but in running away,
I gained the title.
Coward. Scum.
They'd use those words now.
Could I ever have been Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn,
Master of Xanatos DuCrion?
Before the tables turned, maybe,
because then I had something to live for.
What now, really?
Go back and he goes after me.
Go back and who knows what they'll say.
Go back, they won't forget this.
I can't go back.
That's what made me this quitter.
000
Somewhere I'll live
Not a beautiful place
it's got open blue skies
and it's in an uncivilized corner of the galaxy.
Smugglers, spice runners can hide here.
Trading, mostly keeping to themselves.
There's no such thing as illegal here
out where no Republic laws can stretch.
Where loose crime and mutual benefit
settle almost anything.
Quan Mire, it's got this craziness to it.
It puts a fever in my blood.
I've been here two weeks,
and if I run out of my money,
I'll have to take to the streets.
Join the madness like I'm itching to do.
Quan Mire is a trap, with its open gray skies a ruse.
000
Someplace I'll be
They'd call it a cantina.
I wouldn't give it that honor.
It's a dirt shack really.
Shabby tables, many more shabby chairs.
It's not a cantina.
But it has a damn good Correllian whiskey.
000
Some dust
This place isn't dusty.
Not too dusty, anyway.
But every morning
everyone kicks up the street dust
as they shuffle about.
Heading to work leaves me covered in dust
but it's nothing compared to what it's like
in the center of town.
The center's the slave market.
Grunt workers, exotic beauties, starved cooks,
sweat in the open, and dust settles to their skin
and you can tell it hurts them a bit.
Leaves me scratching the dust off my elbows, nervously, the whole day.
000
Maybe…
Maybe, maybe life wouldn't be so bad;
maybe I could fight the boy.
The boy who was my son.
Maybe I could- - I could now.
This place knows how to change you.
Maybe it's the loneliness.
It takes its toll.
But I think it's the lack of
whatever my heart was set on before.
I've got guilt for leaving it.
And it's tearing a hole inside of me,
A hole whiskey is sure to fill.
000
What Now?
What haunts me now?
A presence I haven't felt since…
No. No.
I must be wrong.
I guess it's all really getting to me.
But I've been living fine for weeks now
I can't already be going mad.
000
Town
There's not much to do when I have free time
So I sit in the center of town,
Where things are the most lively.
I'll see the food, but never trust the cook and but it.
I'll hear talk, but I'll never trust my ears to believe it.
and I see the spice trading, booze trading, and slave trading.
I always watch the trading. I hate to watch it- especially the slave trading.
Something tells me it will be worth it soon.
000
Madness
I thought I'd gone mad,
more so than Xani,
when I saw her there.
What brought her here,
what in the name of the stars,
is she doing
with the scum of the galaxy,
what's a Jedi Knight done,
how'd Tahl get herself caught
in slavery's chains?
000
Becoming That Half
The first day I just watch her, and stars,
it's so hard to watch; it's one of the worst sites I've ever seen.
She's got no dignity, no title, they stripped it all from her;
she's succumbed to a whip and a lustful master's needs.
But the others…
Stars, the others.
They sicken me
they are the prospective buyers
who like to look at everything, head to doe,
who will fiddle with their pocketbooks
and haggle with her master.
They brush by her unsuccessful, on to the next one.
I swallow the strange feeling in my throat.
It's so hard to stand by.
A drink or two purges the worst of it, but
I'll need my money for something else.
000
No Courage
Finally facing that vile slave trader
was surprisingly hard to do.
Fighting a conscious fear;
traitor, traitor.
Slave master.
Coward.
Don't make me think like that,
I'm saving her.
I'm saving her, am I not?
I can't be calm.
Because I know I'm a traitor now.
It's in the way Tahl can't look at me.
It's in the way everyone sees me-
and it's not as a Jedi.
000
The Sale
Friendly smile. "You selling this one?"
"Yus, and you can make an offer." Gap toothed grin back.
I brought out all my money, plus meager savings, but it's
not even half his price…
"Not a chance," the trader sneered.
For one second, Tahl glances up, and I'm there to see it.
But I can't read her blank face,
and in the Force she's cold.
She's distant; broken off from the world.
Because of this man. I can't stand him.
The Force is the best bargainer
If someone's brain is smaller than a pea.
Soon she's released, we're walking away.
Strangers stare.
Tahl stares at my back,
still unreadable.
