Month: January 2019

You’re as brave as a soldier!
You’re prettier than a flower!
You have love as strong as a bull!
When you walk in a room you brighten it up!
You will always be my grandpa no matter what!
Whenever we want something, you always get it.
It it’s our turn to put you first!
Everyone who loves you is holding your hand!

---

Fern Bluff Elementary

4

Tho on land I may no longer be
I can see a cornfield on the sea
stripes of plankton occur and green seem to fulfill
the cotton fields white crested will
The deep blue water dips and sways
Imitating hill countries curvy ways
the rustle of wind through grass does weave
to the ears, the waves do as much to please
Snapper flesh like a bluegill tastes
I can devour them with no less haste
No matter what I may do or see
It all still feels like Texas to me

---

Westwood

12

Whenever I’m asked who I am, I falter
I freeze and I stutter, then I take a step back
2, 3, 4 steps back, and I turn around and run
Run to the recesses of my mind
The internal sandbox of sand and good excuses
Dig out the words I can use to cover my bruises
Something like “I don’t know”
Or “Ha ha, woah!”
That’s deep. I don’t know.

Though I don’t see why
I can at least try

I’m an optical illusion
I think I work this way but the real me works that way,
I’m a plane on a runway
I know, with 89% confidence, how to get from point A to point B
But I’ll never take off, that’ll never be me,
I’m a spaceman, a lost cosmonaut flung across isolated dimensions
across deserts of dying stars, with nothing to do but pray for absolutions
or a mercy that’s more permanent, more final…
I tell myself I am these things but I don’t know. This is hard.

This won’t be the poem where I tell you what I like
The truth is, I’m boring, and there’s not much I really dislike
This won’t be the poem where I tell you what I’m scared of
The truth is, the only thing that haunts me is me, what I’m made of
This won’t be the poem where I tell you why…
Why I love the rain but watching it from the window makes me cry…

And I’m sorry if I talk quietly or I mumble,
Or if this isn’t good enough,
But the truth is, when you’re so scared or ashamed of what you can do,
Or what you have done
You get shaky when you’re asked “who are you”?

Who are you?
Who are you? Speak up.
What’s wrong with you?

I was born suspended in water
In the rain on an island in the sea
From the day I was born, I wasn’t free

My parents brought me to the world
They gave me love, then they imprisoned me
I wasn’t free
Early on, I learned that everything had a cost
Mine came in the form of promises to my father
Obligations to Dad

He told me,
Our love brought you here, so you can’t be a painter
Can’t make animation or movies
Can’t write novels or scripts
The world has enough artists
If you want to be a creator, then go create money
You don’t need these dreams, there’s promise in stability

He told me,
You can’t bring us shame
You can’t tarnish our name
You can choose who you want to love
But on your wedding, the day of
I will not pretend to care
I promise I won’t be there
This is not a negotiation
There will be no more discussion

He told me,
My opposition is a felony
The quiet rebellions I commit make me a criminal
And like a criminal, I should be tucked away,
Contained behind a curtain of steel rods

I am not free.
I am not free.
But in indentured servitude, I subsist
In hidden pastimes I resist
I choose to create things. I draw and I write
I continue loving my boyfriend with all of my might
Because this is how I fight
Some part of me still wants to fight
But is this right? Will I be alright?
Some part of me still wants to fight, punch back, retaliate, engage!
But the larger part of me wants to crawl back to my cage…

In the sun I ignore, but at night I lay on the floor, my body so sore
My mind swelling like a boil
A pocket of pink wire knotted and tangled
Agitated and inflamed, bloating my head
Overflowing with thoughts, conflicted
Emotions, unchecked
Insanity, in effect

I’m Frankenstein’s monster: evil and scared, evil or scared

I resent things, I envy others,
I lash out, I hurt people,
I am malicious and a liar
I’m a serpent in the fire

I didn’t weep
I smiled and went back to sleep
When I was told he was in an accident
On the highway, a car with a crater, a dent
Despair in the house, why did they lament?
He didn’t die
He’s on standby
Right there, downstairs
Unscratched, limbs in both pairs
Still the warden of my jailhouse
Still the father of a mouse

Quiet, small, weak
A mouse.

I act like a fool but I follow the rules
I dance with defiance but hide my riots
Because my opposition is a felony
The quiet rebellions I commit make me a criminal
And I don’t know who I am,
I just… I just know I don’t want to be bad

---

Cedar Ridge High School

12

I recently sat down on a rock.
Evening had passed,
And in a long while,
I finally noticed the sky.

There were no trees around.
No buildings, no people.
Just me and the dark expanse.
I was intimidated
But I took off my headphones
And allowed the private session to begin.

I reached out my hand.
My fingers shrunk the closer they got to the stars.
Smaller and smaller,
As if my hands were instead feet
And were hoping to run away.
Eventually, black milk would engulf everything around me.

Then I noticed the stars.
Stationary fireflies,
Minute lighthouses,
Pinpoint diamonds,
Shining against a pit of pure oil,
A blanket of obsidian.

Each star whispered the stories they were told,
All the silly things people promised to them.
Most of them were beautiful and childish.
Some of them were tragic and bleak.
All of them made me look into myself,
Made me wonder,
Had I anything I needed to say?

With patient eyes, the stars waited for me to speak.
Now, I had to open my mouth,
And offer my words to the star-collared priest.
My voice would become permanent in the primordial soup.
Eternal and constant, for future dreamers to sit on rocks and listen to.
Now, I had to open my mouth,
And confess.

---

Cedar Ridge High School

12

there are buildings in a field
guarded by crows and the heavy veil of crying clouds
a crowd of children rush for safety,
swiftly to keep their tails from being bitten

come along, come along. don’t stray behind!

if one trails astray
eyes would prey
mouths would shrink and curve to the floor
come along fool, anyday fool

when the doors shut tight
there’d be no more light
in the eyes of a child left behind

in the courtyard, they assume different forms
boys would grow horns
girls would sprout thorns
stragglers would lose their feet
as they’re chased down through patches of wheat

above, above
the clouds darken
above, the crows swim in schools
forming oily pools
wisps of black feathers that blot out the sky
coordinated swoops
harmonious loops
a dance and a caw
not a single flaw

the stragglers try to run
as the children have their fun

come along, come along, they said
come seek safety in the Castle of Crows

---

Cedar Ridge High School

12

Pain and Sorrow
I have pain and sorrow down deep in my soul
I have this sorrow that is breaking me down everyday
I try my best to smile and be happy
This pain is not something to ignore
Pain is like a person
Once that person has died they can’t come back to life
I have pain and sorrow down deep in my soul
Pain is like a knife
Once it touches your skin
A scar will be stuck to you for the rest of your life
I have this pain and sorrow down deep in my soul

---

CD Fulkes middle school

8

As the words left his mouth he shudders at the sound of them clinging to the air like fog.
More words tripping and tumbling like rocks out of this mouth.
His legs shaking and sweat dripping, falling like rain on the tile floor.
His first poem was a failure.
So he tries again and again ’till his mind is sore of thoughts but his piece is finished.
There is only so much left to give his mouth to say.

---

O Henry Middle School

7

Wind tends to rustle and tussle tin cans across the swarming streets of New York. The cans are kicked, picked and tricked towards the trash.
A gust dusts the rust off the busts in the cans.
Finally the rush of the feet in the street eat at them until they are no more.

---

O Henry Middle School

7