Category: 2019-20 Submissions

When I was young
I was unaware of him
He used to be among
Now thoughts of him make me grim

Then I grew up
I started to really see,
A big close up
A picture of life in 3-D

Sometimes I try
To bring back an image
that I can see with my eye
Then I could see him finish

All that he started
Right before he departed

I Wish upon a star
Up where the clouds are far

I wish I was better looking
To the point where there were modeling gigs I could be booking

I wish I was dumber and better at sports
Because all the cool kids look at me and just laugh and snort

I wish I had style and knew how to dress up a bit
Because all my clothes look like an old oven mit

I wish girls liked me and my personality
But that can’t possibly be a reality

Look man I know your nice
But let me give you a little advice

It doesn’t matter how you look
You can just sit down and read a book

It’s good to be smart I’m not lying
And in a couple of years its from you they will be buying

Dress how you like, how you think
Because their opinions really do stink

People might not like you currently
But it will come certainly

Blue.
Blue is a color.
Blue can even be on your bed cover.
Blue is everywhere.

Blue is the color of the morning sky,
when the sun is up.
The blue sky fades as the day goes by.

I look up at the sky,
and down at the water.
When blue is the only thing I can see,
It seems like it spans infinitely.

The color blue dances as the waves crash on the ocean shore,
It slithers through rivers and canyons,
It flows as the clouds roll by.

Blue is a color.
Blue can even be on your bed cover.
Blue is everywhere.

It was The Fourth of July again.
The celebration began.
With fireworks and food.
The celebration was just getting good!

But not everything ever goes as planned.
My uncle handed me fireworks that were canned.
The sparks were all fun and games until,
Everything went downhill.

All of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain in my foot,
And everyone told me to stay put.
I started screaming and crying in pain,
And ran around again.

I got thrown in a bowl of ice cold water,
It was probably 32 degrees on the thermometer.
An ember had burnt a hole through my foot!
A scar will always be there and will stay put.

I hear sounds,
so I cry
there’s this bright light above me
I cry louder
I feel the warmth of arms,
most likely my mother
her arms are as warm as fiery candles
at midnight
then out of nowhere,
there is a BEEEEEEEEP
and her arms turn cold, and I start crying again
Oh no.

“Is it your birthday?”, Shawn asks
“Yup!”, I reply with excitement
I come out of school
and go “home”
it’s the same everyday
beer bottles broken,
or half empty
except something’s different
Dad’s sitting on the couch,
with a belt
Oh no.

I’m off to college I guess
I got accepted to UT Austin
but who will pay?
not Dad.
Oh no.

I’m going to be a father!
I’m with my wife in the hospital
and a ball of joy and happiness emerges
A Baby!
I can’t believe it!
and then there is something familiar
B
E
E
E
E
E
E
E
P
Oh no.
Not again.

It’s raining outside
and everyone’s dressed in black
as I see the brown box,
with the lifeless woman I love inside
as I comprehend the moment,
I start crying,
and I can’t tell if my face is wet for rain
or tears

I’m officially raising a teen now
it’ll be hard but
it’s okay
we walk outside on the sidewalk
and talk
but she col
lap
ses
the doctor said she has a couple of weeks
Oh no.

The familiar sound is back
BEEEEEEP
but I don’t cry
it’s a part of my life now.

I’m alone,
jobless,
happyless,
with no confidence,
but I will keep going!

It’s the day
my fiance and I are getting married!
Oh yes.

Our child is born!
Oh yes.

No complications with health!
Oh yes.

Now I can finally rest,
BEEEEEP
Oh yes.

They take me to a room, and tell me to
Lie down on my stomach

“You have MRSA, a powerful superbug,”
“It’s very hard to treat, you’re lucky your case is mild.”

Someone offers me a pill

“It’ll make the pain go away.”

GIANT SCISSORS start cutting my flesh as if my skin is a sheet of paper
I still feel pain and wonder why the pill isn’t working
Then, the burning sensation of soapy water inside my skin
STINGING like when you get SHAMPOO IN YOUR EYES
And a stuffing made of ribbon, like they were cramming feathers inside of a pillow
Wrapping up my surgery as if it were a present.

In a few weeks,
those terrible SCISSORS would be back,
my ribbons would be cHaNgEd,
and the cries and screams of an eight-year-old girl would echo throughout the building,
tears of fear and pain bouncing around the corridors

And the worst part would be,
That I couldn’t see any of it,
But I could feel EVERYTHING

Fun
Right
Intelligent
Exciting
Nice
Dear
Surprising
Happy
Impavid
Positive

Life’s existence is the result of incredibly
unlikely events that were certainly bound to happen.
And over millions of years life evolves towards a hopeless level of intelligence-
a mishap.
The ability to see and to think so sharply,
leaves behind incomprehensible questions that
we can only answer so partly.
What created this?
What created what created this?

Think about it-
A calendar is an elliptical clock,
at which our beloved sphere is timed revolving around
an enormous mass of plasma,
lost.
Lost in a giant spiral of stars
suspended in a dark and mysterious substance of empty void.
We’re really just another grain of sand in this vast celestial beach.
So where…
Where are we?