he said i’m not tired.
yeah i can pull it through.
but i’ll only lay here and enjoy you.
you and your beautiful body.
this body isn’t so beautiful when the soul attatched slips away.
yeah i’m not that considerate.
it’s the little things that capture the light crescent of a sunrise.
i’ll break down this little body
12 Jan. Written Post 2008
“Pandemic Icterus”
I wake up to sweet talk.
I think my eyelids can walk,
They creep up to greet you-
Everyone’s dead on this block.
We didn’t listen when we had our golden chance
It was a lie when they told us, ‘you live before you can’t.’
Now we lock down our house
On a ground of yellow hands.
I hear a noise at the door,
That I think my ears can ignore.
I don’t feel bad.
Turn up the radio more!
All we hear are the golden oldies.
When you and I are so lonely,
It’s the song of our world
Of milk and death, honey.
I see the shining faces outside my window.
They can’t see us, I feel for them though.
Your breath slows and
I feel worse - now that it’s in my home.
- Ben Falandays, Salesianum School, Class of 2009, DE.
“move along or content”
and seek pleasure in this lonely cigarette.
but i think you should know that
just cause i’m built to satisfy doesn’t make me cute when you tickle me.
just cause you look good on top doesn’t make you a man.
just cause you look good on top doesn’t make you a man.
- Mariam Saleh, MA.
“Grottos”
It smelled of cheese
and
grease
and
boardwalks.
Of
babysitting
and first crushes
and
birthday parties.
It tasted of youth.
And it turned to ash in my mouth.
It smelled of cheese
and
grease
and
boardwalks.
Of
babysitting
and first crushes
and
birthday parties.
It tasted of youth.
And it turned to ash in my mouth.
- Rachel Southmayd, Sussex Tech, Class of 2009, DE.
“500 Square Feet”
At the opposite end of my yoga mat are my size 5 feet. I don’t know how I got here. It’s an uncomfortable position and I am surrounded by middle-aged women who are dutifully humming their Ohms.
My mother signed me up for this class because she thinks I am tense. I am not tense, I am neurotic. I am neurotic, I am anxious, and I have broad shoulders where I inadvertently showcase all of my emotions.
The last time my mother enrolled me in a class here I was 5 and preparing for my future career as a ballerina. I was good at ballet. I took classes there for around five years, and I can’t remember a time in my childhood when I was so proud.
“Bring your hands to Earth,” sings the teacher. She drives a bright red convertible, now getting drenched in the rain. I have seen her at the local manicure salon getting her nails painted fuchsia, an Asian woman kneeling at her feet and scrubbing her ankles.
I lower myself and let myself and let my hands touch the floor. I notice the glitter of sweat on the wood and let my eyes follow the pattern of small footprints across the span of the room’s 500 square feet. I know that they are my footprints and that my miniature form had hovered above these small markings years ago. I leaped there. I stood in third position there. I soared over there.
Suddenly I become distracted by the noise of small laughter and squeals. After unknotting myself, I spy through the window a small girl in a light pink tutu practicing for her mother.
I used to be that girl. I can see my parents faces beaming. I can feel the surprisingly harsh material of my tutu scratching my hand. I feel my arms raise with hers, creating an oval framing my head.
But then she’s gone. Officially done with practicing, I watch her jump in and out of puddles, her mother mortified. Her feet are completely soaked in a moment of eight-year-old bliss, and then they are gone.
At the opposite end of my yoga mat are my size 5 feet, but they seemed to have grown.
- Molly Schenker, Central High School, Class of 2008, PA.
“thesolethoughtofa sneakerafterbeingtied togetherandthrowninto atelephonewire.”
heavens open arms; lay behind razors
when your head sleeps in your hands
and the streets are teeming in an ebb and flow of the
out (side)
and you’re scared,
and you’re scared, but
and you’re scared, but
looking back on those skies you can’t
let those stars,
consume you (they with their
jaws and their angels waiting to carry you up)
and you’re scared but there are
idle bodies on idle beaches
where things settle
call, forwand and repent, or
call, forwand and repent, or
your throat could be filled with sand
- aj Champigny, MA.
