Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandom:

Heated Rivalry (TV)

Relationship:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov

Characters:

Shane Hollander, Ilya Rozanov

Additional Tags:

Ottawa Centaurs (Game Changers), Poetry, Bad Poetry, Harris Drover Needs a Break

Language:

English

Series:

Part 27 of Retro Writing - May 2026 Challenge

Collections:

Retro Writing Month (2026)

Stats:

Published: 2026-05-27 Words: 486 Chapters: 1/1

Poetry is hard

Summary

The Centaurs conference room is eerily quiet after Harris makes his request.

“But why?” Dykstra asks, though Shane’s feelings echo the sentiment exactly.

“Because April is national poetry month, and I need content.” Harris shrugs. 

Notes

Prompt fill for day twenty seven of the Retro Writing May 2026 Challenge: Poemfic!

The Centaurs conference room is eerily quiet after Harris makes his request.

“But why?” Dykstra asks, though Shane’s feelings echo the sentiment exactly.

“Because April is national poetry month, and I need content.” Harris shrugs. 

“Isn’t that your job? Why are we being farmed out for this, man?” 

Another sentiment that Shane agrees with. He thinks he remembers writing poetry in grade school, but that was several years and a few concussions back.

“The fuck are you whining about?” Ilya scoffs. “Is not fucking hard. Pick Haiku or letters poem, stop making Harris’ job hard.”

“Yeah.” Troy agrees, earning himself a fond smile from Harris; which, considering Ilya is the one trying to help here-

“Moya lyubov, stop glaring at Barrett and write me love poem.” Ilya demands, and Shane hastily turns his eyes to the lined steno-pads that Harris had left on every table.

“Er.”

Every word he’s ever heard has suddenly fled Shane’s mind.

Stalling for time, he leans over to Ilya and quietly asks, “What’s Haiku? That’s the seven words, seven letters thing?”

Ilya looks affronted. Shane had no idea he cared so deeply about poetry of all things.

“Seven syllables, five syllables, seven syllables.” Ilya corrects, clapping his hands along with the words to denote how many syllables each one has.

“And uh. Letters poems? Like, a love letter?” he asks, because trying to think of words was hard enough, but adding in the trouble of counting out the syllables…

“I think he means acrostic poetry.” Harris offers, because he’s a shameless eavesdropper. “Write the letters of a word in a column, then fill it in with words that start with the letter on the left. Doesn’t have to be one word each, just line them up.”

That sounds infinitely harder.

“...okay.” Shane says instead of ‘can’t I hire a ghostwriter for this’.

Ilya is already scratching away at his paper, the same determined look he gets on his face when he’s coloring pictures with the Pike kids.

Wracking his brain, Shane fumbles through a few iterations before he finds something that looks passable.

I’m Shane Hollander

I love hockey and Ilya

Poetry is hard

“Why am I after hockey?” Ilya sulks. 

“It’s alphabetical.” Shane shrugs, tugging at Ilya’s paper to see what he’s written.

Have you heard

Of my husband Shane Hollander

Cause he’s

Kind of amazing

Easily second best hockey player in league

You should see him play

Ilya’s poem has him snorting with laughter, even as his cheeks burn with embarrassment.

“Honestly? These aren’t that bad. You guys are hockey players, no one’s expecting Shakespeare here.” Harris smiles as he reads them over.

“Hey, I need a word that rhymes with blue.” Dykstra asks.

Shane and Ilya share a look with Harris, who looks monumentally pained.

“Wow.” Ilya mouths, and Shane has to fight back a snort of laughter.

Well. Poetry is hard.