Category: 10th

Very Berry

Roses are red
My life is like a berry
It’s very short
And very scary
I go through different stages
I also travel a lot
Some people like me
Others do not
But that’s ok
Because in the end
I’m still a berry
And that’s cool
Cause no berry is alike.

Lyndon B. Johnson High School

10

White Coat

Football this basketball that
It’s all I ever hear
But nothing about the white coat
that helped to heal your arm
When you broke it
Or the white coat
that was right by your side
making sure everything was good
While you laid on that hospital bed
No
It’s all about the man who kicked a ball into a net
or ran a ball to the touchdown
Stop to think
that the person who wears the white coat
is one reason I’m here watching this game today
Not the person on the field
or on the court
No
But the person in the white coat.

Lyndon B. Johnson High School

10

Lucky

Lucky
Words fall from my mouth
Regurgitated
An imitation of a real person
I get by by mimicking what I see in others
Lucky, some would say
That I am able to pass for what I am not
A competent illusion
Scraping on past by the skin of my teeth
It’s no wonder I hate poems, I think
Metaphors make no sense and
Between the lines goes over my head and
Just this once, I think
The words fail me again and again
Poems, they shatter my skull
A brain that cannot compute
A brain that cannot understand why
Why must the true meaning always be so obscured?
Why can’t you just be straightforward with me?
If you’re going to give me a gift
Why must you seal it with pretty words and fleeting metaphors?
In all these verses, rhymes, and lyrics
I only hear that which I cannot understand
And I am left with an unfinished work of art
I have to wonder how other people see it
Do the most potent words ignite fireworks in your mind
And firecrackers in your heart?
Does it paint the most exquisite picture?
Does it seem like art to you?
Not to me
Not to me, do the words inspire passion or excitement
Or revelation of a hidden meaning
My teachers said poems were for everyone
I never thought that was true
Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude, Shifts, Title, Theme
Must a poem be all that?
But even in the inaccessible English class analogies
I can write even poems in my own way
And that is what I’m lucky to see

Anderson High School

10

PISCIS

Me llamo Andres,
Soy de dos mil tres.
Yo soy de mis padres.
De mi familia y Rusia.
Soy yo.

Pero todos me hablan
Que tú, no eres tú.
Eres un “Piscis”
Un pez del agua.

Ellos me dicen
Qué me gusta y qué no.
Me dan mis talentos
Y mi negatividad.
Me dan mi personalidad.

Pero
¿por
qué?
¿Por
qué?

No consiguieron nada
Pues todo lo que hicieron
Fue perder su tiempo
Para tratar de darme
Mi personalidad,

¡Qué, no entienden!
¡Qué ya tengo una personalidad
Y no necesito de una nueva!

——————————
Bellow is a direct translation of the poem above, to English.

My name is Andre,
I am from two thousand and three.
I am, from my parents.
Of my family and Russia.
I am myself.

But everyone else says
You are, not you.
You are a “Pisces”
A fish from the water.

They decide for me
What i like and don’t.
They give me my talents.
And my negatives.
They give me my personality.

But why?
Why?

They didn’t get anything right.
All they did
Was waste their time
To try to give me
My personality,

What they don’t understand,
Is that i already have a personality.
And i don’t need a new one!

James Bowie High School

10

Breathe

Breathe

Hot
Hot
It’s hot
Too hot
breathe
breathe
I can’t breathe
a tightness
a tightness in my chest
breathe
breathe
lay down
down on the bus seat
pitter-patter
pitter-patter
pitter-patter of the rain
sweat
sweat
covered in sweat
Breathe
Breathe
Sleep
just go to sleep
listen to the calm music
Ignore the loud noises
Breathe
Breathe
water
drink water
I can’t
I can’t breathe
help
help me
Help
Help Me
Breathe
Breathe
Blurry
Blurry
My visions blurry
Darkening
Darkening
everything’s darkening
Breathe
Breathe
There’s no air
I can’t breathe

One last message

Mom
I can’t see
Dad
I can’t breathe
Nick
I can’t say goodbye

I love y’all

Bowie High School

10