The Stars We Borrowed - By Jenna Clarkson

Written By: Jenna Clarkson

Category: A short story of poems

Competition: Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026

In the realm of creative writing, Jenna Clarkson presents "The Stars We Borrowed," a compelling collection of poems that delve into themes of love, loss, and the myriad lives we almost lived. As part of the prestigious Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026, Clarkson's work stands out for its emotional depth and introspective journey. Without a fixed geographical backdrop, the universal nature of her themes resonates with readers worldwide, exploring the complex beauty and painful contradictions of the human heart.

About the Work

Jenna Clarkson's "The Stars We Borrowed" is a poignant exploration of love's tender yet tumultuous journey. Through vivid imagery and evocative language, her poems traverse the landscape of romantic entanglements, the heart's fragile resilience, and the bittersweet nature of memories. The collection captures the essence of falling in love, enduring heartbreak, and the eventual path to healing. Clarkson's literary style is both raw and elegant, with a narrative that speaks to the universal experience of yearning and the courage to remember beautifully.

The Stars We Borrowed Poems on love, loss and the lives we almost lived

Original Submission by Jenna Clarkson

The Stars We Borrowed

Poems on love, loss and the lives we almost lived

Jenna Clarkson

________________

Dedication

For L,

For the stars we chased, the roads we travelled, the futures we imagined and the beautiful moments I will carry with me long after we’ve said goodbye.

For the boy who made me believe in love again, and the man who taught me that sometimes love, no matter how extraordinary, is not enough.

I hope you remember us kindly. I hope that somewhere, in another lifetime, we got it right.

It was the thrill of a lifetime to love you.

And though our story ended differently from the one I had imagined, I will never regret the beautiful parts of it.

After all, there was a time when you were my favourite person in the entire universe.

These poems are for you.

For everything we were, everything we survived, and everything we will never get to be.

________________

Preface

There is something terribly beautiful about falling in love with someone who will eventually become the reason you write poetry about heartbreak.

I never intended to write a collection of poems. I simply had too much to say and nowhere to put it all.

This story begins with a girl who had already had her heart broken. A girl who had spent far too long putting herself back together, searching for pieces of who she used to be in fast cars, crowded bars and strangers beneath the stars. She was learning to live again, slowly, recklessly, beautifully.

And then, just when she thought she had finally figured out who she was, she fell in love.

With ocean blue eyes and a smile that made the ordinary feel extraordinary. With a boy who made her believe that perhaps the universe hadn't finished being kind to her.

And God, what a beautiful thing it was to believe in love again.

We were young, foolish and hopelessly convinced that what we had was something the world had never seen before. There were midnight drives, stolen kisses, terrible arguments, extraordinary adventures and promises made beneath skies we thought belonged to us.

There were moments I would relive a thousand times.

And there were moments I wish I could forget.

Somewhere between the beginning and the end, love became something I could no longer recognise. The same person who made me feel safe could make me feel terribly small. The hands that held me through some of the darkest moments of my life belonged to someone who would eventually become one of them.

And perhaps that is the cruelest part of heartbreak. That the beautiful memories do not disappear simply because the person who made them has hurt you.

I have loved, I have lost, I have begged the stars for answers. I have mistaken passion for permanence, chaos for chemistry and forgiveness for another chance at forever.

I have been the lover, the fool, the girl beneath the spotlight and the one left standing when the music stopped.

These poems are not written in pursuit of innocence, blame or a perfect ending. They are the memories of a girl who loved with everything she had, even when she wasn't entirely sure what she had left to give.

Some are tender. Some are angry. Some are painfully contradictory. But so is love, and I refuse to rewrite the beautiful parts simply because I know how the story ends.

This is a collection about having your heart broken, finding the courage to open it again and discovering that sometimes the person who helps you heal can also be the person you have to heal from.

It is about all the futures that almost happened, all the things we survived and all the versions of ourselves we leave behind in the people we love.

But more than anything, it is about remembering.

Because for all the things I wish I could forget, I would be lying if I said it wasn't the thrill of a lifetime to have loved you.

And now, for the first time, I am learning that I can remember you beautifully without wishing you back.

These are the poems I wrote on my way there.

________________

PART I

Before The Stars

________________

Collateral Damage

Get up, keep moving, make money.

The rest will come when you accidentally heal yourself.

Find things you love,

Find out who you are,

An adventurer beneath the stars.

Chasing freedom in fast cars,

Losing yourself from bar to bar.

You think you've figured it out,

You think you finally know who you are.

But somewhere between the bars and the fast cars,

You've been leaving behind a trail of scars.

In your desperate search for who you are,

You've left love and friendship scattered on the tar.

Mistook every escape for a brand new start,

And called it healing while breaking hearts.

You were so busy learning how to live

That you forgot what you had left to give.

So determined to find yourself again,

You never noticed who you lost on the mend.

And when the music stops,

When the engine finally goes quiet,

There's no one left to call,

No one to tell you that you made it through it all.

You spent so long chasing a life

You thought would make you feel whole,

Never realising that finding yourself

Could mean losing everyone you've ever known.

And isn't that the cruelest part of all?

You got the freedom, the fast cars, the stars.

You finally became exactly who you saw.

But tell me,

Is this really all you are?

________________

Ever The Court Jester

They took all the stars

And left me here in the dark.

I spent so long mistaking love

For something that was meant to leave a mark.

And I played along until I knew

There was nothing left of me to lose,

And nothing left of him to choose.

So I left it all behind,

The broken promises, the wasted time,

The love I fought so hard to find,

The boy who made a fool of mine.

And then I found those ocean blues,

And God, what a beautiful thing it is to know you.

Every part of me feels alive with you,

Even the pieces I thought I’d outgrown,

Even the parts I never knew.

I’d never known love without a fight,

Without the fear of another sleepless night.

But now you’re setting sparks across my darkest skies,

We’re sparking up during my darkest nights.

And for once, I’m not afraid of the light.

You give me everything and more,

All the things I thought I’d have to beg for.

No wondering, no waiting, no keeping score.

I’ve had love, but I’ve never felt this seen before.

And I know, I know, I never learn.

The mistakes I’ve made, games I’ve played,

The bridges I’ve burned, the lessons I’ve earned.

I’ve mistaken pain for passion

And called every heartbreak a lesson.

Ever the court jester, my mistakes are their favourite source of pleasure.

They laugh at the girl who believes in forever,

As though wanting to be loved

Is something I should have known better.

But since you’ve been around, things are better.

You found the pieces I couldn’t put together.

And somehow, without asking me to change,

You’ve made me feel beautiful again.

________________

PART II

The Beautiful Disaster

________________

The Secret Gardens

There are gardens in me

That have never seen the sun.

Where white roses climb the iron gates,

And wildflowers grow from all I've overcome.

Where moonlight settles on the stone,

And even the most beautiful things

Have learned to bloom alone.

I shared all my secret gardens with you,

Not just the ones in my mind.

I let you wander through the wilderness,

Through places I'd spent a lifetime trying to hide.

The jasmine climbing up my spine,

The roses tangled in the vines,

The parts of me I'd never dared to call divine.

You never had to climb the walls.

I met you at the gate.

Placed every rusted key into your hands

And mistook your curiosity for fate.

I showed you where the violets grew

Between the cracks of broken stone.

Where I'd planted flowers over graves

Of things I'd never fully mourned.

You knew which roses bloomed at night,

Which ones had struggled towards the light.

You knew the places frost had settled,

And how I'd fought to keep them alive.

And God, I thought you understood.

You walked barefoot through my gardens,

Said you'd never seen such beauty before.

You kissed the petals of my flowers

And promised they were worth protecting.

So I let the ivy climb the walls,

Left the windows open to the rain.

For the first time in forever,

I wasn't frightened of someone knowing

Where I'd buried all my pain.

But when your tenderness turned cruel,

You knew precisely where to stand.

You knew which roots were barely holding,

Which roses would break beneath your hands.

You took the secrets I'd confessed

Beneath the shelter of the trees,

And scattered them like poisoned seeds

Across the most vulnerable parts of me.

You called me mad with the same mouth

That once called me beautiful.

And every wound I'd let you see

Became another reason

You said I was impossible to love.

Now the gates hang crooked on their hinges,

The fountains have run dry.

There are petals pressed into the pathways

Where we used to lie.

And I wander through the silence,

Past the roses, past the rain,

Trying to remember which flowers were mine

And which ones only grew

Because I thought you'd stay.

But the cruelest part

Was never watching you leave.

You didn't have to burn my gardens down,

Or tear the roses from their roots.

You knew how hard I'd fought to grow them,

How much of myself I'd buried in that soil.

And still, you stood among the flowers

I'd spent my whole life keeping alive,

And told me they were weeds.

________________

The Twentieth Century Show

I miss it.

Feeling alive.

The electric touch of race cars at night,

Performing in bars beneath neon lights,

The beautiful certainty of knowing who you are,

Before it all became Mars.

It was a daze, a blaze,

A lavender haze.

Lipstick on glasses, headlights in the rain,

A thousand little moments I keep trying to reclaim.

It used to be electric, poetic,

We were a spectacle,

A drama, a twentieth century show.

Everywhere we'd go, an audience would grow.

And whilst the chemistry was wild,

Our anger was vile,

Perhaps the whole thing was futile,

And you said I behaved like a child.

Two fools beneath the spotlight,

We'd dance towards disaster,

Thinking it was happily ever after.

And God, we were convincing.

The way you held me in crowded rooms,

Like I was the only girl you'd ever choose.

But you loved me most beneath the lights,

When all our wrongs could look so right.

I wonder if you ever knew

The difference between loving me

And loving what we put each other through.

Because what we had was so easy for you to replace,

You couldn't even wait three days

Before you were back on the chase.

How are you not ashamed?

Do you not know your place?

I wish this was all a phase.

I wish I could remember us

Without remembering what came after.

The silence where there once was laughter,

The tragedy beneath the happily ever after.

Because the crowds have gone,

The curtains have closed,

The orchestra's packed up,

And everyone's gone home.

No final act, no grand encore,

Just my dress lying on the floor.

And somewhere in the silence

Of a life I used to know,

I realised I'd lost myself

Trying to keep us in the show.

I thought I missed the spectacle,

The madness and the stars.

But I think I miss the girl

Who knew exactly who she was

Before she gave you the leading part.

________________

The World Kept Turning

There is something to be said

About two people having the worst day of their lives

At exactly the same time.

Mine began beneath the fluorescent lights,

With a little life I was asked to leave behind.

His came later, on a Thursday night,

With a steering wheel and a white line.

It had been raining for hours.

The streetlights wore their golden halos,

The roads were ribbons of reflected light,

Green and amber bleeding into silver,

Painting little rivers through the night.

I asked him not to drift.

Please, not tonight.

He smiled the way he always did,

As though the things that frightened me

Were things he'd always make all right.

And then the world turned sideways.

The tyres slipped, the headlights spun,

The road unravelled beneath us.

I saw the traffic through my window,

Watched the pavement disappear.

And for a moment, I believed

That he would catch the wheel,

That we'd straighten out and laugh about

How terribly close we'd come.

Then came the fence.

The sound of metal giving way,

Of something breaking in the rain.

And in a voice so strangely calm,

He said,

“We need to run. Now.”

I climbed across the leather seats,

Through shattered glass and sheets of rain.

The air was thick with burning rubber,

Cold metal and the smell of wet terrain.

And suddenly we were running.

Past the wreckage, past the lights,

Two silhouettes swallowed by the night.

My shoes were slipping on the tar,

My heart was racing like the cars.

And all the while, the world kept turning.

Somewhere, a mother was reading Peter Pan,

A kettle whistled, a television played.

Someone kissed their children goodnight,

Someone else was planning their wedding day.

And the traffic lights kept changing.

Red.

Amber.

Green.

As though nothing had happened.

As though I hadn't spent that morning

Saying goodbye to someone

I would never get to meet.

As though the man I'd imagined

Our little life beside

Hadn't just watched the world go sideways

With me sitting at his side.

I found a wall to hide behind,

Pressed my shaking hands against the stone.

The rain was running down my face,

And God, I'd never felt so far from home.

My heart was beating through my chest,

A violent, frightened, frantic thing.

I wondered how much grief a body holds

Before it finally gives in.

Because I'd spent the day

With one life slipping from my hands,

And now I'd nearly lost another

On a rain-soaked stretch of land.

I walked until the streets were strangers,

Until the darkness swallowed every sign.

Until I couldn't tell which way was home,

Or which of all these roads was mine.

Then my phone rang.

He was hiding in a park.

And somewhere in that sodden little town,

With the rain still falling down,

I went looking for the man

Who had turned my whole world upside down.

And isn't that the cruelest part of all?

After everything I'd lost that day,

After everything I'd had to let go,

I was still searching through the rain

For the very person I called home.

________________

Things We Could Still Put Right

We found each other somewhere in the rain,

Two frightened souls with nothing left to say.

No questions asked.

No answers offered.

We sat there soaking through the seats,

Our clothes leaving dark impressions

Of two people who had almost disappeared.

The windscreen wipers kept their rhythm.

The city passed in streaks of yellow light.

And neither of us reached

For the other's hand.

When we got home,

We stood in the kitchen

Dripping onto the floor.

You looked at me.

I looked at you.

And suddenly we crossed the floor.

Your arms wrapped around me

As though you could hold together

Everything the night had torn apart.

I rested my head against your chest.

And there it was.

That heartbeat.

Steady.

Certain.

Unaware of all the things

I'd lost that day.

If home had ever made a sound,

I swear to God

It would have sounded just like that.

You tucked my hair behind my ear,

Your fingers cold against my cheek.

And when you kissed me,

There was nothing gentle

About the way we needed each other.

We were all trembling hands

And desperate mouths,

Still tasting rain,

Still trying to convince ourselves

That we had made it out.

We held each other

Like vines against a crumbling wall,

Clinging to the very thing

We feared might fall.

And for a little while,

The world outside disappeared.

No headlights.

No broken glass.

No clinic waiting in the morning of my memory.

Just your skin against mine,

And the terrible relief

Of knowing you were alive.

Later, I stood alone beneath the shower.

The water was hot.

I wanted it hotter.

I wanted to strip the day from my skin,

Wash the rain out of my hair,

The burnt rubber from my clothes,

The fear from somewhere deep inside my chest.

I watched the water gather at my feet,

Carrying little pieces of the road

Into the drain.

And I wished the rest of it

Could leave me just as easily.

Then I remembered.

The pill.

The clinic.

The things we weren't supposed to do.

That morning, I'd woken up pregnant.

By evening, I'd taken the first pill

To end the life I'd already imagined.

And somewhere between the clinic

And the crash,

I'd spent the whole night

Trying not to lose you too.

I leant my forehead against the tiles.

I didn't know which part

I was supposed to cry about first.

The child.

The car.

The fear.

The future.

The way I'd held you

As though nothing else mattered.

So I didn't cry.

I washed my hair instead.

Twice.

And when I finally climbed into bed,

You didn't come with me.

You were cleaning.

I heard the cupboards opening,

The water running,

The quiet movement of things

Being put back in their places.

I never asked you what you were cleaning.

Perhaps there was nothing left.

Perhaps you were trying to scrub the night

From the kitchen floor,

The wreckage from your memory,

The guilt from somewhere

You couldn't quite reach.

And perhaps that's why

I washed my hair twice.

Because after a day

In which we'd lost control

Of almost everything,

We needed something,

Anything,

That we could still put right.

________________

PART III

What Remained

________________

The Last Dance Before Saturn

He was like a magnet,

And I never understood the pull.

Across a thousand constellations,

Through galaxies of violet and blue,

Somehow, every road led back to you.

We met in a saloon at the edge of Mars,

Where lonely souls came to dance with the stars.

Pink moons hung above the bar,

And silver dust fell from passing stars.

With your hand on my waist and mine on your heart,

We danced like the universe belonged to us.

White stardust on our cowboy boots,

The jukebox playing songs we knew.

We drank beneath a lavender sky,

Watched distant planets passing by.

And when you kissed me in that neon light,

I thought I'd found my place in the universe that night.

I'd have loved you to the moon and Saturn,

Stopped for a drink on every passing planet.

Made a home between the stars,

Danced in every cosmic bar.

We could have spent a thousand years

Getting lost in the atmosphere.

And God, I really thought we had it.

But sometimes I swear you planned it,

The way our little world crash landed.

One moment, we were dancing,

The next, you left me stranded.

As though the universe we'd made

Was something you could just abandon.

Damn it.

I really thought I had it.

And now there's an empty stool beside me,

In a bar somewhere beyond the stars.

The jukebox still plays our favourite song,

And the bartender asks where you've gone.

I tell him you're travelling,

That you'll be back before too long.

Then order something stronger,

And let the music carry on.

Because I've travelled beyond the moon and stars,

Watched entire worlds fall apart.

Seen pink skies turn to midnight blue,

And dying suns shine like they were new.

I've watched the brightest stars burn out,

While their light kept travelling.

And isn't it strange

How something can be gone,

And still look beautiful from afar?

I used to think you were extraordinary,

Something written in the stars.

But I've seen enough of the universe

To know that beauty isn't proof of heart.

And somewhere between the moon and Mars,

Between the empty glasses and the closing bars,

I finally understood the part

I should have known right from the start.

I wasn't dancing with the stars.

And I know what you are.

________________

Love, Really?

The concept of love is absolutely maddening.

Ripping yourself apart to let someone see every inch of your soul,

Sharing the most intricate, intimate, insatiable,

Insecure and unstable versions of your inner self.

I shared all my secret gardens with you,

Not just the ones in my mind.

And now, even those you covet each night.

When I lie in bed, memories of us flood my mind.

The wine, your fingers drawing circles on my spine,

Burning pine on a cold winter's night.

And I can't help but wonder...

Am I out of my mind?

Was every “I love you” just a lie?

Did I plan and pine, just for the stars to misalign?

Did I pay and pray, just to be turned away?

Thinking you were mine.

What a waste of time.

________________

The Thrill Of A Lifetime

It was the thrill of a lifetime to love you,

To chase the stars and make it to Mars,

To lose ourselves in those fancy cars,

And find a little piece of heaven

In a world that was entirely ours.

And God, I really loved who you are.

The way you laughed, the way you smiled,

The way you made the ordinary feel wild.

The midnight drives, the racing hearts,

The way you held me in the dark,

As though you knew the way to all my scars.

You helped me heal the things that hurt,

Showed me what I thought I was worth.

You taught me how to raise the bar,

And for a while, you were my favourite star.

But darling, the problem is,

I know who you are.

I know the tenderness in your hands,

The promises, the beautiful plans.

I know the boy who made me laugh,

Who held me close and kissed my scars.

But I know the other parts of you, too.

The cruelest words, the things you'd do,

The way you could make me feel so loved

And then so difficult to love.

And isn't that the hardest part?

To know the man who held your heart

Is the very one who tore it apart.

I wish I could remember only the good,

The way you loved me when you could.

The nights beneath those violet skies,

The way the universe lived in your eyes.

I wish that loving you were enough,

That every broken thing could be repaired by love.

That we could go back to the very start,

Before we learnt the cruelest parts

Of one another's hearts.

But some things cannot be undone,

And not every love is meant to be the one.

So I'll keep the stars,

The trips to Mars,

The midnight drives in those fancy cars.

I'll keep the laughter, the beautiful days,

The memories that time won't take away.

I won't pretend it was real.

I won't deny the things I feel.

And I won't turn the love I gave

Into something I should be ashamed of.

Because I loved you.

In every possible way.

In every version of tomorrow

I thought we'd get to make.

And perhaps a part of me always will.

But I cannot keep confusing

The man I loved

With the man I know.

I cannot keep calling you home

When loving you has made me feel so alone.

So this is where I leave you,

Somewhere between the moon and Mars,

With all the love I couldn't give you

And the future that was almost ours.

It was the thrill of a lifetime to love you.

And I will miss you,

More than I could ever say.

But I have loved you enough

To know when I should stay.

And now, my love,

I have to love myself enough

To walk away.

About the Competition

The Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026 by Hashtag Kalakar is a celebrated event that brings together voices from around the world, showcasing the art of storytelling through poetry and prose. This competition invites participants to express their unique perspectives and creativity, celebrating the power of words to connect and inspire. It serves as a platform for emerging and established writers to share their work with a global audience, fostering a community of literary talent.

We extend our deepest gratitude to Jenna Clarkson for sharing "The Stars We Borrowed" with us as part of the Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026. Her work offers a profound reflection on the complexities of love and memory. We thank Jenna for her contribution and look forward to seeing where her creative journey takes her next.

About Hashtag Kalakar

Hashtag Kalakar is a creative platform dedicated to providing artists, writers, singers and other creative talents with opportunities to showcase their work and reach wider audiences through competitions, features and creative initiatives.