I hear a knock at my door,
Pulling it open, I find a red balloon
Tied to a paperthin string -
Holding it, I look up.
My thoughts are levitating.

I am alone, abused and shattered.
A year ago, when I lay holding the bouquet to my own grave
A red balloon guided me home,
To my real heaven, Derry, Maine.

I ran faster than my limbs could
Away from my parents, away from my reality
To a world that would never leave me,
To live in harmony, with a bunch of misfits like me.

I remember those sleepless nights,
The screams, the sounds of hurricanes breaking shards of glasses at the porch -
Staring into eternity, hoping for a change.
Out of which emerged a massively built Victorian man.

He bore the most soulful eyes,
Staring right into mine -
"If you come with me, you'll float too", he said
So I took his hand and went on an endless journey.

I'd seen him before,
In a book narrated by the King of Horror -
"He thrusts his fists against the post
And still insists that he sees the ghost"
was what I heard last from that charming man of thirteen,
Bill was his name, brother to the long begone Georgie Denborough.

He told me about the clown,
Of how the town of Derry was cursed  -
He told me to join his squad of the betrothed
That they'd solve the mystery of who was this sweet serial killer.

With my dreams in my head,
pain in my heart -
I spent the summer of fifteen with them,
Did fall for the man named Richie Tozier
But was stunned by the Victorian clown, Pennywise.

I wonder what my life would have been,
If I hadn't known of either of them
The Losers and that pretty clown, Pennywise-
It'd probably be another summer of paranoia
Lying in a pool of my own consciousness.

While I'd grow up to be the woman of valour,
I can never truly forget them,
Stephen King's infamous book, "IT" ;
Turned into that beautiful remake of summer of '17,
Of how a single movie changed my way of living -
Of how it dared me to dream again.

                            - Anurima Mukherjee

P.S. - This poem was written for the Summer Poetry Contest, hosted by stephenkinglover2 , on the topic of "Your favourite movie". This poem is based on the movie, IT(2017) that made a huge impact in my life and even to this day, I'm dearly addicted to how Muschietti brought so much life to this movie.