Poem
Writing
The Woman, The Daughter
By Cady StevensAuburn curls waltz in my eyes, flames in my earliest memories.
I remember most parts fondly.
Matching blue eyes, struggles inherited
from your mother.
We struggled existing
as the proper mother and daughter.
Where I Hope to Be
By Katelyn PatrickWhere I hope to be
In case you ever need to find me
And I am no longer here:
Find me in the stolen glances
Across the room when everyone is busy.
In the anxious anticipation
Of someone’s presence
Or the small thrill that comes
From a brief moment of locked eyes.
Valedictorian Gift
By Wyatt VaughnThree strings across my body,
Pinky and thumb pinching each fraying end.
Pulled across my chest, three strands
Strung taught in my open arms.
Pink,
Blue,
And white.
kentucky
By Caroline Stickneyseven horses dead in 10 days, track dirt still
painting damp mouths and eyes that will
never start again and here we are with
our feet kicking up ground and orange light
staining like iodine on skin and we never
think to worry it’ll be us splayed out on the
left unsaid
By Sundos H.a split second meeting.
one glance,
and nothing more.
i do not know your name.
neither do you mine.
a short friendship.
we drifted apart.
i have your number,
but i won't call.
you won’t either.
infection of idolatry
By Francesca ArnoldStudying my nose in the mirror
I recall roaming for comfort
My fingers are my ailment- dismay
That you will one day let go of my hand,
Not necessarily for another, (though it has been so)
But from a gradual loosening
My knot of insecurity,
A continual,
The Next April
By Elena ZhangOnce again,
my eyes have failed
to cradle the sorrow
of her last morning’s cascade.
Once–
my back bathed
under the lazy midday sun,
lightly awakened
by her calloused touch.
her sunshine girls
By T.J. Penmani was raised in the house that neither of my parents built
although my mother was the one that raised me
she took a home not built yet and filled it with daughters
and when her husband left
he took his paintings of french women
garbed in robes with eyes grinning into the sun
Like the Ballads
By Que Tran TranIn his head, he is
beneath the stars,
that are shimmering
but silently so,
quiet in their
overwhelming beauty.
They reach out to him
despite being held
captive
in the sky’s embrace.
String Theory
By Haley Kleinmanthere is a gentle pulse on the other side of forever
when Mother Nature’s whisper grows hoarse
and our two hands hang limply in the space between us
leaden feathers dragging on the corners of fickle consciousness,
the laughter drying,
morphine for the pre-dead
Requiem for Banana Bread
By Haley KleinmanThe paper is old and wrinkled
Tapered along the edges like a fairy’s carpet
Billowing outward, flowering, creases unfolding in waves.
Rising off the words is the scent of brown sugar, old parchment dancing on the kitchen island.
Counting the Seconds Till Departure, Trying to Find Reasons Not to Go
By Haley Kleinmancradled in the peak of an eclipse my breath capsizes into
the fray
a shuddering recognition of lost time
we sit back on the river rock letting the waves trickle between our toes
wrinkling our fresh skin into prunes
how did we get here?
Everyday I Bleed On Paper
By Ana AlonsoEveryday I bleed on paper,
(It looks prettier that way.)
Here I present to you my blood,
Crimson seeping through sheets,
Spelling out words that stitch themselves into sentences,
That become paragraphs and poems.
Letter to Hades
By Amelia FrankDemeter’s calloused hands inch towards mine
I taste each fingertip in the golden dust that sprinkles my scythe
Her pitying reflection in each bead of sweat that rolls down my earth
Wetting its molten core.
You are a shadow oil that spills and spreads
Asian Silence
By Katelin ChanMorsel of fire-kissed stir-fried greens
Tossed, unmissed through clouds of steam
Hissed as they dished in the wok, has been
A familiar sight preceding my teens
Scott City
By Lydian CochranDoes it scare you?
Does it remind you of when you were young?
A thin dirt road unpaved and unexplored like your heart.
You were born at the bottom of an infinite whisky glass
Your dad isn’t ever gonna reach you.
Untitled #18
By Lydian Cochrani crave what i can’t reach.
burn me into an iris
i want the sun to love me
what is a god anyway?
these cicadas are singing all wrong
boil my bones
i’ll hold this family together
Reshape
By Grace-May HansenMy temper is a candle, with it’s wick burning low
An impermanent cloud where I come and go
My mind is a cavern, where I bury things deep
So mostly I smile, but sometimes I weep
My body is a temple, at which I throw stones
The collisions break away soul, leaving only some bones
Untitled #17
By Lydian CochranTomorrow my heart will thunder.
rain will pour like a thousand tiny words
summer can swallow me whole.
I’m ready for an ending
the sunlight can eat me alive.
lay me down in the backyard.
I’ll fall right through the grass
a box for a body
By Isobel Liand so the ideal takes form
shaped by what we think,
by the way we allow ourselves to think
All-American Adolescence
By Riley StraitTomorrow, I will worry about the future.
But today, I wallow in the past.
Tomorrow, I will be 16 and trying to remember
if the derivative of arcsin is one over
square-root-of-one-minus-u-squared
or square-root-of-u-squared-minus-one.
an uncomfortable comfort
By Leandra Hofor so long, i’ve crossed the same streets
i’ve smiled and waved to the same people in the hallways
i’ve thought the same thoughts
i’ve loved the same love
but i’ve outgrown my attachment to comfort and my warmth for the familiar sidewalks
Black and White
By Farah FehmiI had a dream last night . . .
I had a dream last night . . .
You died!
I studied it for myself
Looked it up even
But couldn’t wrap my head around it
Couldn’t wrap my mind –
No worries
Just
Meet me in my eyes
What beautiful eyes
Black and white