Vision+Voice

The leaves fall fast, leaving their tree bare
The wind is like a puppeteer,
Making the them dance with invisible strings
The ground not visible anymore underneath the colorful sea of leaves
The autumn chill creeping inside the sleeves of coats and the in cracks of windows
The sky crowded with gray clouds,
And the chance of rain is in the air

Everything is just nothing
Just a void of endless darkness
The world can be dark
Even if you choose to embark
Maybe running is not always an option
Just an opinion

If you run, it will catch you
Maybe don’t run from it, but try and live with it
Darkness is solitude just trying to live with you
Just try something new

Just find a light in the darkness
And maybe you can discover something new, or be heartless

Books high and low
The strong old smell of pages
Nothing but stories

I’m from the ranches and farm animals to the mall.
From riding horses to hot pink.
From a loving family that I love so much.
From gymnastics to dance.
From boot-cut jeans to skirts.
I’m from Ryan and Berry.

I’m from the borrowed pages I have read,
from streetlights and stop signs and long winding sidewalks.
I’m from the cat sitting on the windowsill and the musty rugs beneath my feet.
I’m from the orchid resting on the counter, whose petals never fell nor died, but stood their ground in the warm sunlight.
I’m from the snowfall that engulfed the backyard, turning it into a snowy wonderland,
from the stormy clouds above my head and the raindrops that dotted the windows.
I am from the gumdrops my grandpa ate and the sweaters my grandma knit.
I’m from “our father, who art in heaven” and the golden chapel of the church I spent the early hours of my Sundays in.
I am from the stars that glimmered right outside my bedroom window, so bright and vibrant, I could almost hear them tapping on the glass, and the starless nights, whose inky blackness would drown out all light and gently lull me to sleep.
I’m from 939 30th avenue, the home I grew up in,
from the red-painted door and the lucky horse shoe my mom hung above it.
I am from all these things and more, from the memories I cherish and the things yet to come.

The piece of gum that was small as a crumb,
The notebook that I rarely ever took,
The pen case that didn’t fit my taste,
The computer case that is a piece of waste,
The one apple that is bigger than a saddle,
The bottle that made water taste awful.

You hear the cry of the bagalu goblin and it strikes you with fear.
You peek around the corner with nothing to see except his little brown ear.
You hear a wild and loud sound coming from the odd darkness and follow it with mystery and dread.

When you walk into the dark mysterious place you see the little goblin, standing with a blank face. You forget how you got there and ran back to your bed.

You drift to sleep like nothing ever happened and wake up the next day thinking it’s a dream you continue moving on as said: school, home, then bed.

As you lay down to end a day’s work you hear a familiar sound coming from the dark. A cry, a scream, a bark what could it be! You look into the dark and see a faint figure, I guess it wasn’t a dream after all.

I used to be 11, but now I am 12,
I used to be in elementary, but now I am in middle school,
I used to hate school, but now I like it,
I used to dislike music, but now I love it,
I used to be unsocial, but now I have plenty of friends,
I used to not like exercise, but now I’m ok with it,
I used to be confused, but now I’m confident.

A bunch of kids that can’t behave themselves
A trash can that hasn’t been taken out since 1994
Gum that’s been there since day one
A bus driver that gets mad every time we scream
but when there is no kids on the bus
It’s quite Its calm
No one screaming in your ear telling you to be quiet because you’re talking to loud
Not a person to make a peep
But having your friends around is fun
You would usually just listen to them
Block out all the other noises
Sometimes it can get crazy
Sometimes it can be calm
But you only notice everything going on when all your friends are gone

After a bad rainy day, I’m still here
I’m still standing
And I just wanna disappear,
But I can’t
Like a diamond in the sky.
I wanna cry
Goodbye

I gotta be grateful,
For everything I got
For the confetti.
I change my face
To a smile
Because tomorrow is going to be a good night.

I am grateful
Because it is a beautiful day.
We gotta build a tower
So we can have a big tall tower of gratefulness
So at the end, we look up at that tower with admiration
As friends.

–Rodrigo Gil