Jackie's Sestina

           Jackie’s Sestina



Alone he waits, little Jackie sits and stares, too dark to go find them tonight.

The boy gives a shiver, staring out for who he needs most. They said they were his family.

The trio went off without him; they said they’d be back. How long does he need to wait for his knights?

The blonde boy curls up in his corner of the alley, too cold to try and sleep off the pain.

He feels a tremor shake his body once more; they can fix this, right?

The trio caused this problem, and he merely feeds the flames. How long will he be sick?


Jackie burrows in the thin coat he has, they couldn’t tell him how long he’d been sick.

The little boy jolts his head around, hearing a noise, a little mouse. No, not them, not this time tonight.

He always wonders why he was ill; it wasn’t because he did something bad, right?

No matter what he asks or does, they never tell him, they say they couldn’t, since they were family.

Another throb of his head and churn of his stomach, why was he in so much pain?

He’d do anything for someone to be with him right now, any kind of knight.


Jackie stares up at the sky, hardly able to see the stars. What a bleak night.

He begins to shake harder; it feels like he’ll always be sick.

The little boy whimpers, all he can feel is the growing pain.

He feels his eyes begin to droop, was that it for tonight?

Would he just fall asleep right here, without his family?

It seems so, and it seems to be like that most nights, if he recalled right.


He always asks the trio if he’d ever get better, they always say “Right!”

But he’d been this way for months, maybe years. Would they lie to him, his knights?

Jackie remembers them all tell stories about years ago, about their other families.

They never mention anyone who felt like him, who was sick.

Would they ever return tonight?

He doubts it, feeling his whole body envelop in pain.


The boy remembers whenever the trio spoke of others, they never spoke of pain.

They never spoke a word of bad things, only things that were good and right.

Jackie hopes that he won’t fall asleep; he wants to see them come back tonight.

He wants to curl up against them and sleep, curl up against his knights.

Though, he doubts they’d want to do that, they could become like him, sick.

Little Jackie looks back at the entrance to the alleyway, did he see his family?


The boy grins and his violet eyes light up, they were here, his family!

Jackie starts to get up, to try and hug them, but cries out and falls back down, unable to stand from pain.

They hurry over, one wrapping him up in her arms, the others noticing how he was even sicker.

They begin to ask him questions; no one gave him anything or hurt him, right?

The trio curls up around the boy, doing what they were supposed to, be his protectors, his knights.

Little Jackie curls up between them all, falling asleep with ease tonight.


His family worries and they wait, tomorrow would he be freed from his pain, or would he still be sick?

They couldn’t tell; the trio had no idea what laid in wait for the boy.

But, surrounded by his knights, feeling like all was right, little Jackie’s sleep, goes further than just tonight.