Category: 2022-23 Submissions

Here we feel ten feet tall
Living out the fantasies we saw
You say it’s alright
Please change the topic
But the reality makes me sick
This has to be anything but love
But I love the way you give it to me
“I love my girl till the end”
But forget what I said when I’m in your bed
That silky smooth brown skin
Your body movement
We know I shouldn’t adore
But I won’t feel a thing when I blackout on the floor

We know it’s wrong
We can’t keep this up for long
The late night calls
Secret hidden texts
Our trips to the malls
But baby you’re my idol
And I wanna see my hero
How much do I love her today?
From one to ten, it’s zero

You said this was one night
And now I’m your memory
“We’ll do what you want”
I love the things you say it to me
Wake up, I have sugar on the table
Act like you don’t know me when we pass by
Now baby I got to leave
But I’ll have your address under my sleeve

We know it’s wrong
We can’t keep this up for long
The late night calls
Secret hidden texts
Our trips to the malls
But baby you’re my idol
And I wanna see my hero
How much do I love her tonight?
You know it’s zero

Her eyes
Are leaf shaped
Piercing green in the spring
In the fall
They turn to a warm hazel

Her neck is long
Strong
And graceful

Her skin is tough
It can take anything
Even a lightning strike

Her memories
Are clear and vivid
She has deep roots
Sh knows the whole history of this place
She has been here a long time

She loves pinkish purple flowers
And adorns herself with them once a year
In celebration
Of the new life and possibilities
That may come
When the flowers turn
To pods and seeds
First green, then brown
Like her eyes

Her heart
Is warm and loving
In the summer sun
Even under shading branches
Which offer protection and shelter
As the wind softly whispers her name:

Luna

La luna es luz.
La luna es el frio.
La luna bella.

I am not trying to save the world
The world will survive
I am trying to save Us

We, the ones who cannot stand each other but also cannot stand life without the company of another
We, who try to make sense of what does not but cannot comprehend the very basics of life

We, who will tear each other apart from the inside out
We, who will turn against one another on a battlefield of endless death
Until the last man standing
Is standing on a pile of bones so tall that when he looks down
He falls to his doom
To our doom

In a trillion years the Earth will be gone
In a trillion years we all will be gone
In a trillion years all that will be left will be dust
Floating through time and space
Dust and memories of a civilization that once was
And that never will be again
A trillion years may sound like a long time but
It’s not

Our future is finite
But time
Is infinite

We are the small species that once considered themselves the rulers of that single, miniscule corner
Of the Universe

We are the babies that will never grow up
Clutching tight to our hearts the unimportant and inconsequential
Secrets and plans
Clutching our
Worries and hopes and dreams
All for a future that is already alive in the past and present
In time and space
They are all the same thing

We are a single sentence in the billion volume series that is the history of the Universe

We are the once alive and remembered
Forever dead and forgotten
We are the ground that the next world will be built upon
And fall upon
We are the smallest and biggest that ever has been
That ever will be

We are fleeting
We are bursting
We are small

Growing Old

Today I’m a teenager
The freedom
the moodiness
falling in love
It all feels so real now
Sitting at home wanting to cry for random reasons
Like someone eating all the cereal
My feelings vary
Like a roller coaster of emotions

Today I’m an adult
Enjoying life
mad at life
annoyed at life
Nothing ever stays the same
You will feel one thing
Then it changes
In the matter of a second
Out on the town enjoying a nice dinner
All the sudden
I am crying my eyes out
Never knowing why

Today I’m in my middle ages of life
Becoming old
everything has changed now
Getting on to my kids
Going to back in time
When I would argue
Or
Not do something I was told
Then my mom would say…
I will understand one day
It’s all starting to make sense after all
Like a million pieces coming together
Making my life that much easier

Today I’m a grandma
Feeling like I’m no longer in control of my life
Sitting at home
using a cane
taking naps every 30 minutes
My body chooses
not me
Feeling like I’m happy inside
But not knowing what’s happening on the outside

Soon I will not be with you
Never knowing when
Never knowing how
It’s not up to me
It’s not up to you
It’s not up to anyone

I closed the door and stepped back
Staring at the sidewalk cracks
Hoping to wake up
From a dream that was corrupt

Why did we have to leave
It was so hard to believe
It was time to leave my friends
Waiting for the dream to end…

Oh how I missed my old school
With broken windows and creaky stools
The memories I made
To leave them I was so afraid

The memories I made
I was thinking of them as I laid
On my bed, in my house
I hear the squeaking of a mouse
I’m back at home but it’s so dark
I look outside at my old school’s park

I tell my friends I’m coming back
To that old school
To that old shack
This dream just seems so abstract
When I wake up my mind goes black

at the edge of the world, i sit,
my voice was restrained,
and riddled with pain.

flashing back was a trife,
pressing slowly, suffocatingly.

at the edge of the world, i sit,
waiting slowly,
for nothing to come.

with my ending come near,
the flowers wilted in pain,
it echoes my agony.

at the edge of the world, i sit,
digging my nails into the ground,
scarring the earth with a scorching pain.

i carefully peer into the open world,
where ruins of skyscrapers,
and shattered skylines lay low.

at the edge of the world, i finally stand,
and with that ending note, i fell,

your embrace was long gone,
now replaced with the void’s,
but i felt warmer than i ever did.

Enter its depths, but there’s always more to breach.
Never enough, never-ending, every sound and sight-
Ceasing to know if there’s a way out, but why would you want it?
Heaven is nothing if it’s not amongst a place like this,
Acres of flora taken swiftly from dreams,
Not a single patch of grass rooted in reality.
This is nothing like reality,
Endowed upon you-
Don’t blink, lest it disappears.

For when the breeze swirls through the mist,
Omnipotent in it’s thick haze,
Realizing a way free is impossible.
Even further it invites you,
So do not resist!
The trees can stay for eternity in your mind.

Red tears on a summer evening
fall without a place to land
fluttering as though they might sprout wings
sprout something loveable and beautiful
but the dry air is not kind to the water of life.

Red tears on a summer evening
should really happen in the night
when there is no witness to watch you cry
other than the distant moon that aches for you too.
The sun cannot ache for you
discomforted as it drips beneath the horizon
wishing it would be over already.

Red tears on a summer evening
are not synonymous with blood
but you wish they were
so your turmoil could show itself
as something other people understand.
There are many questions about a gash on your cheek
and scars on your skin
but they are quiet for splinters in your heart
and cracks in your love.

Red tears on a summer evening
dry up too quickly
but leave your eyes puffy and worn
even when you rush to the bathroom to wash your face.
You cannot rinse grief from the mind
only freeze it in harsh chills
and let it slowly melt
dripping throughout the next day.

Red tears on a summer evening
do not want to leave you
nobody wants to leave you
but they do anyway.

A single raven flew through the inky-black night sky
Swaying around the dimly glowing streetlights
Flying nowhere
Gliding around
Darting down
Reaching up
Twisting
Twirling
In the chilly air

Rapidly he slows down and perches atop a pole
Looking down at the city, full of fluorescent, colored lights fills his eyes
Buildings blur together making a rainbow of light
Not an odd rainbow, one very common, yet still as magnificent as could be

The raven sits comfortably, not a sound coming from him
This site always changes the way he views the new world, a different kind of beauty.
Every day he is presented with the gift of this seat being able to see the world
With a whole new vision.