Vision+Voice

I love pizza ALMOST as much as I love football…
I have been playing for 5 years….Almost every year I have been on a team with friends from school…
Football is how I bond with people…and I play football as much as I sleep, as I breathe, as I eat..

I use to play on a football team that won a lot of championships….I loved the feeling of being part of a winning team…

This year I won only one game, and I am about to describe that game to you….It’s pouring and I am soaked I am shivering …it’s cold, and my arms are stiff and my legs are already sore.

It’s the last game of the football season and the last play before halftime… the other team is about to score a touchdown… I am on the sideline and begging to myself that they will not score and that the rain stops as quick as lightning strikes.
The other team starts their play and it is an incomplete pass….
I am relieved that they did not score. We skip halftime and I am back on the field. This possession we do not score it is the other teams ball now.
We stop them like a cheetah stops a dear and we get the ball back…. Near the end. We are up by seven and they have the ball with a few plays to go.
They run the ball….my teammates go for the flag but they miss but the player running the ball still stops and looks as confused as me….
I pull his flag and his coach yells at him to never stop running. We get the ball back and cooper the QB for my team throws the football swifter than an arrow and one of our WR receivers catches the ball as easily as standing but he gets his flag pulled before he can score.
A few plays later the game ends and we won the game. I am as happy as someone that won the lottery.
Football makes me happy like spending time with my dad….. on Sunday eating chocolate donuts with sprinkles…sweet treats like a football victory…
That is football to me.

Austin Jewish Academy

5

Fast falling
Arms flailing
Losing control
Look out below
In fear
Never ending
Gone

Fern Bluff Elementary

5

Lost your way,
Where are they?
Where to turn?
Too much to learn
Sun’s gone down,
But home’s not found

Alleys, paths
Internal wrath
Which way to go?
I don’t know
Endless walking,
No one talking

Getting near,
Mild fear
Look around
Now home is found!

Fern Bluff Elementary

5

smiling,
dancing,
laughing,
hugging
celebrating smiling, dancing in joy
with others, laughing, hugging together

Fern Bluff Elementary

5

Mama said I was born at 6:00 in the evening. Rosy cheeks and bright cherry lips. She named me Summer I reminded her of sunshine. I am the younger sister to my older brother but I’m a big sister to 3 others. “I know my role” I am a daughter first a sister and friend. “I know my role” I am a pretty brown girl, I am smart, and I am sweet .
sometimes I dress weird and I’m not neat. “I know my role” I love art because there are no rules I am free to be me “I know my role” Math is my favorite it challenges me. At one time it was hard for me to read the words looked funny and hard for me to understand I did not give up I worked hard every day because “I know my role” My little sister copies everything I do I don’t like it but I know that I’m a person she looks up to. “I know my role” Do you know yours?

Zilker Elementary School

5

As much as I can say, life is not the truth.
It hinders not much more than a fearful light.
Are human sense invites you to a parley in a booth.
It is a devastating thing as once the Buddha fought in an airy kite.

The only safe Valley out of the mountain is by Nirvana love.
It’s rests deep in the mind and heart and is, only locked.
The final stage brings about it but you’re not alive from your rocked.
The delusion that fake life gives is not a dove.

Nirvana oh Nirvana brings craziness to the regular mind.
To the regular mind do not worry say no wants, to not bind.
Left and right you walk be the Buddha’s real.
As to free from life give meditation to the wheel.

Fantasizing the Northwest Passage is a precious Jewel to the mayor.
Slash back in infuriating distaste even more, hate in happening.
Taking the love that he gives and meditated as a prayer.
The soul inside of you is ready for a fruitful fruit ripening.

Now back to a moment a precise time and being.
It is illustrious that the delusion of Life appeals timely.
The sunshine of loving sweetness resides in your seeing,
The jewel brought up before is it Beauty for some blindley.

Walsh Middle school

6

The rain has come again
Extinguishing sunlights flame
A tapestry of grey memories paints the clouds
Maybe the sky is broken today
It held too much and suddenly it cracked and everything fell apart
Pouring from the sky, heavens discarded sins

The rain reminds you of your past
You don’t know why
Maybe it’s the color – grey
You mutter something along the lines of “what an ugly day”
Then turn your head in disgust
Retract into yourself
Pray for the sun
Close your blinds
Turn blind – maybe

I sit against the warm asphalt
The sun is still there , the heat is our reminder
Pools of mud and dislocated thoughts surround me
Stagnant brown oceans
I dip my toes into the water
Then my legs
Until I am up to my neck in puddles
Wading in the dirty thoughts
The ones others hide themselves from

I want the mud to stain my skin like paint
A reminder of the rain when it leaves and is erased by the sunlight
I want to swallow up heavens sins, tongue out towards the sky like a child
Gulping down the rain you avoid
I want to look into the destruction of water and see the life it brings
Feel the way it kisses against my skin
Thanking me for joining it
The rain and I, star crossed lovers

Pour onto me
As I wade in shallow puddles
Toes covered in dirt
Hands gripping at wet asphalt
Eyes trained towards the broken sky
I know you cannot forgive the rain for what it does
It’s a reminder of your loneliness
Approaching you in storms
Until it pours and spills and devours
Forcing you to hide indoors
You find memories to be such an ugly thing
The past you despise so much
I hope one day you’ll find the beauty in the storm, the rainbows or maybe even just the puddles.

Anderson High School

12