Category: 2021-22 Submissions

Its Sweet Smell On A Summer Morning
Repeating Your Name In A Mannerly Font
Giving You A Quick You Can’t Stop Eating Me Warning
Its Beautiful 3 Colored Heart

The Apple Crumble On top
With a fall candle shops essence
If I could I’d eat it non-stop
You Can Feel Its Warm Presence

Apple Pie
A Warm Welcoming Heaven

Roses cascade from the walls,
The most beautiful flowers on the most painful vines
Just like my memories,
They hurt to feel but they brighten my day
Bittersweet sugarcoating, I miss you

I wish to go back, I wish for more
It’s never enough but there’s so much I could do
To keep us together, to stay a pair
We complement each other
Like a bouquet of fresh flowers in the most elegant of vases

You lay there with my hand in yours,
The sun paints the leaves a gorgeous gold
Reminds me of your laugh, that smile I haven’t seen in ages
Open up, bloom as bright as the shining sun
But don’t get too close, I know what’s hiding.

A single silent glimmer
A whisper to the deepest depths
A gleaming butterfly, an inch away
Casts one red string trail
As it floats away
Carrying lyrics on its back.

We snatch the cord like a fishing line
Thinking ourselves great,
When the prey we hunt has the true virtue.
Do not take advantage of the butterfly.
Let it guide you softly, let the gentle shine
Blind you of all else.

As it burns, it will consume the darkness.
As it burns, it will become clear.
Follow the string, and grab
Your pen and paper,
For inspiration has struck.

You were the small sapling
Of a baby oak
One that we planted
Underneath the sun
You were the small leaves sprouting
From its branches
Reaching for the stars
You were the bright green
And the light brown
That gave me comfort
And excitement
You were the little flowers that grew on the tree
The little honeysuckles
That tasted so sweet
You were the safe nook in our tree
We used to hide in
But now
You’re no longer a small sapling
But a big oak
One that towers above us
You’re not the small leaves
But the ones that give us shade
You’re not the honeysuckle anymore
You’re the trunk that gives them a home to climb
You’re not a nook in a tree but
rather the whole tree
Wrapping me in its branches

I feel my anxiety wrap around my neck
It’s my personalized noose
It’s not quite tight enough to lul me into the comforting black void
It will cause me endless stress.

I feel my fear of people standing in front of me
I’m drowning in darkness
It keeps me from making genuine connections
It will cause me endless loneliness.

I feel my people pleaser instincts create a concrete mask on my face
No one will ever be able to truly know me
I’ll always just be a persona
It will cause me endless depression.

Since the big bang it’s always been this way
Life ticking downward till your last day

Why does it have to last forever everyone will say
It can happen anytime of the year even in beautiful May

All of us slowly cooking on a rocky tray
All destined to die like the people at pompeii

You can dance and play,
But everyone has to pay

From the glamorous bay
To a place far, far away

Your life will always sway,
But when you go I hope you can say hey
I’m pretty happy it turned out this way.

Ink
Thin tip
gliding
along the starched paper
looping
curving
ink
staining the page,
a flow of creativity
as pitch-black
as the sunless
corners of a deep
cavern.
Ink
filling an immense lake
the perfect round
and smooth rock
skipping
floating
and tapping
the opaque water,
inky ripples rolling
to all corners.

Below the surface
a tentacled creature
breathes in through
fleshy gills
and pushes the air out,
creating fastly
disintegrating
bubbles
that catapult it
backward.
The flat rock
falls by this
iridescent being
and both are
immersed
in a dark cloud of
ink.

Cliffs of blue ice
With frosty icicles hanging underneath
A layer of soft delicate snow
Coating the cliff
A fluffy white bear
Sitting on the thick arctic ice
A cub three times smaller than her
Leaning on her leg

The whole landscape is pitch dark,
All that can be seen is the moon and the stars
The trees have grown still
And the air has a chill
All that is awake,
Bats, frogs, crickets, raccoons, snakes

All through the night
They glide in through the sky
Some leap far and high
Some swim in a crystal lagoon
Some howl at the glowing moon

When the sun begins to rise
They crawl into their den, close their eyes
And take a nap until
All the land is dark and still
Again.

Tall trees
With large fanning leaves,
Vines that run around the tree in a spiral
Reaching for sweet light
Above the rain forest.
A sloth gripping onto the mossy branches,
A red bird perched on a log
Singing a cheerful macaw song