Category: 08th

Like a saddle-shackled horse of old,
the people,
bound and branded into submission,
bend over, tucking their
sunken cheeks
between the spurs grinding beneath their master’s soles
and kiss goodbye their resolve,
because the whiney of a horse is but a whisper
compared to the crack of a whip.

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Bailey Middle School

8

In the beginning life was slow, then as we mature it grows
Life is like a river, forever flowing on and on, then one day those days are gone
Poof
Where’d it all go? It’s like it just disappeared in then snow
As I keep on looking and looking for an answer, I find out that i’m just a dancer
I go in circles repeating the same routine, and one day I realize it’s probably in my dreams
I feel like I’ve been suffocated for the majority of my life, sometimes I look down at the knife
What if I end it all right here, but that became abundantly clear
Crystal clear in fact, that I don’t have to kill myself over some rats
One day I realized that they’re not worth my time, all they’re worth is a dime
They can’t ruin me, because all I am is free
Free from the complicated situations, I’m finally free from this suffocation
For once I can breathe on my own, and i can open my eyes and realize what I’ve always known
That I don’t have to take all this pressure from everybody, I am FINALLY free from this child’s body

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Bailey Middle School

8th grade

Out of sight
Out of mind,
in too deep
Come out blind,
Reach for the darkness
See what you find,
Follow the light
Leave it all behind.

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Bailey Middle School

8

With trumpets call and loud parade,
they praise the hell that they have made.
They do not dare to be aware
of awful things they’ve done this day
Long tongued liars live here now.
To long tongued liars wronged men bow.
Long tongued liars walk the streets.
Long tongued liars in gods seat.

Lying spiders spin their lies
when they say walls don’t have eyes.
Wronged men do just hide their fear
when they say walls don’t have ears.

A nation
caught in devastation
with covered eyes ate the lies
that led to hell’s creation.

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Bailey Middle School, AISD

8

The lonely island waded in the ocean
Drowned in knobbly sand
Dressed only in broken bottles and rusted treasures
The sun looked wrong on his weary body
No glow
No shine
Just there

A traveler at heart
But with no weight to carry him
He was immovable
A lazy blob on a lazy planet
No feet to walk him
No wings to fly him
Nobody to help him

Everyday though
Pure white birds would fly above him
Almost like angels they looked
He begged for them to stay
To dance in his no longer shiny jewels
And tell him about the world he could never see
They left

Then one stormy day
When not even the island could hear his own pleas of sadness
A ragged bird soared by with feathers the color of dirt
Almost matching the wreckage on the island’s shore
Startled by the noises of the clouds
It dropped something and the island called for it to come back but again nobody heard
It left

The “something” only grew from then on
It became so tall that the island thought it was attached to the sky
A palm tree
Birds came from everywhere to marvel at it
The island became a popular pitstop for them
They would rest in its leaves and chat about foreign lands
They stayed

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Bailey Middle School

8th Grade

“Clean clean clean!”
I keep hearing
but that’s not my wish
Everything’s in its place
Right where it fits

“It’s not that bad!”
I say
I know where everything’s at
from that yo-yo from 3rd grade
to my darling indigo hat

Sure it’s not that organized
and a bit mismatched
but it fits me and my mind
It’s pretty simple actually
Some things are not meant for others to find

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Bailey Middle School

8th Grade