Aledo Catalyst Literary Arts Magazine May 2023 // Issue 3

by Anna Carpenter, Elianna Garcia

22 “Slow and Steady” by Cayleigh Garner

23 “A Tumultous Sonnet” by Riley Greenhouse, Vanessa Ramirez

24 “Elegance of Solitude” by Sorin Hohman

25 “Patchwork” Jaclyn Morgan

26 “01101100 01101001 01110110 01100101” by Cayleigh Garner, “Displaced” by Cayleigh Garner, “Running Out of Time” by Jackie Hall, “Deprivation” by JJ Guess

27 “Generation Z” by Lane Voskamp

28 “Checkered Windmill” by Lexi Griswald, Alex Davis, Evan Bradley, Lane Voskamp, Olivia Cook, Johnnie Reed, Annie Henry

29 Riley Greenhouse

On the Cover//“Hotel” by Johann Sommers

Riley Greenhouse

“A Starry Night” by Haley Ingram

Integrity + Honesty

Integrity: strong moral principles and moral uprightness, Often associated with those who are righteous. Honesty: free of untruthfulness, lies, and deceit, One with this quality today is unique.

People talk a lot about honesty and integrity, In the world we live in, these feel like a rarity. People trade these morals for clout or for fame, All they want is for people to know them or their name. These days, people care about trying to conform, They will give up anything to be a part of the ‘norm.’ But in doing this, they make several sacrifices. And this is why our world is facing this crisis:

People are pretending to be someone they are not, In this world of judgment, they’re afraid to get shot. Shot down by the critics, shot down by the cruel, Shot down by those who are pretending to be ‘cool.’

Honesty and integrity are starting to decay, Both things that I try to maintain day by day. They increase your honor, they increase your strength, You no longer need to hold the world at arm’s length.

Imagine if people brought back these two morals, Lies would be gone, along with small petty quarrels. People would no longer have the truth withheld, And to society they would no longer meld.

You can trust those around you; you know they are real. You don’t have to wonder, you know how they feel, About things good or bad, they don’t hide reality, They tell you the truth, in all actuality.

But at the same time, they respect those around them, They won’t force their ideas, they won’t try to drown them, In what they believe, their personal opinions, They know knowledge and understanding is a personal decision.

They let others believe what they think to be right But attempt to pull the ignorant from dark into light. But against this pull people continue to fight, And so they stay forever lost in the night.

This night is thick, and heavy, and dark, A place where people long to make only a mark, A way to be remembered, after they are gone, All they want is for their memory to live on.

But when faced with the truth, the real truth is, That this broken world is a place that is ruthless. Rarely allowing joy or truth in, It’s a web that the spiders continue to spin. They spin their webs, sticky and strong, Making us believe being truthful is wrong, And not an important character trait for all, If you don’t bend the truth, you are going to fall.

They are simply not right, these thoughts they put out, They make us feel shame, and they make us feel doubt. They make us think these morals should not be upheld. This is a message that needs to be yelled:

Honesty and integrity should not start to fade, They need to come back; this should not be delayed. In a world where we’re constantly lying to each other, Honesty and integrity must be rediscovered.

by Lane Voskamp

“Carnival” by Rubea Lambert

“In Your Hands” by Cayleigh Garner

“Mystic Pond” by Jade Jones

Self Love

by Savannah Fakas

What is the purpose of self love?

I thought it was taking a nice bath

Buying myself flowers

Cleaning my face

Reading poetry to myself Or even

Just hugging myself for s minute

While these are all forms of self love

It is not the purpose

The purpose is to accept yourself in anger

To hold yourself in everyone else’s disgust

To motivate all your positive behaviors And not neglect the negative behaviors But to recognize yourself and adore every action, movement, look, and feeling

“Ziggy” by Blu Cedillos-Obergon

“Gyo Gyotaku (Horror Fish)” by Reagan Tomlin

“Cat Boy” by Riley Morrill

“The Ideal” by Gustavo Paredes

“Fred” by Gage Frazee

“My Friend Caroline” by Izzy Weisenburger

“Fraction of Myself” by Lauren Leite

“Fractured” by Cory Tilly

Dance with The Dearly Departed” by Kathryn Manus

Acceptance

the rock lays set in stone as the moss begins to grow

while the sun still rises as the moon enjoys her peak throughs

spring will roll around as the flowers will begin to bloom

while the winter still creeps behind leaving a fresh wound

while she never enjoys the rhythm she is learning to dance to it’s rhyme

by Savannah Fakas

“Contorted Zebra” by Ethan Shelton

Ciara McClanahan

Olivia Fowler

River Nelson

Thin Ice

by Riley Greenhouse

In the winter, snow falls and ice forms

The sun sinks and its shadow wraps around the sky

A time of adventure has arrived

Children sleep; but not all

And so, a boy ventures, winter beckoning a call

In the night, the boy finds a frozen body—of water

A lake, he finds a crystallized lake

The lake glistened as light from the stars danced on the coat thin ice resting on the water

A most alluring sight it was

He forgets the cold, the night beckoning a call

In times of consequence, we don’t realize we’ll fall

The boy walked on the lake, on thin ice

It cracked and he slipped in, still in his trance, The depths beckoning a call

In the end we never realize we walk on thin ice

Then it’s too late

Then it’s too late.

All that remains is a cold, overwhelming dread to drown in

In the water, we can’t hear

In the depths, no more calls are heard

In the night, a final breath is taken

In the winter, time freezes as we walk on thin ice

Kiara Bowers

Kiara Bowers

Kaylee Halfmann

Kyle Krall

Elianna Garcia

“A Cityscape” by Anna Carpenter

“Slow and Steady” by Cayleigh Garner

A Tumultuous Sonnet

by Riley Greenhouse

I know that I learned to hate what I love To suffer the hurt of a silent song

Some turn to the skies for signs from above And heavens declare the right from the wrong

An empty heart hasn’t passion to spare A bird without wings only dreams to fly And no longer I have dancing to share A dancer that does not dance is a lie

Hesitant I am to practice my art

With time and care I’ll unlearn to despise Medicine won’t heal such wounds of the heart

One day I will dance without all the lies

So the sun will set and the sun will rise With new wings and a dream the bird so flies

Vanessa Ramirez

Elegance of Solitude” by Sorin Hohman

“Patchwork” by Jaclyn Morgan

01101001 01110110 01100101”

“01101100

by Cayleigh Garner

“Deprivation” by JJ Guess

“Displaced” by Cayleigh Garner

“Running out of time” by Jackie Hall

Generation Z

by Lane Voskamp

I sit, bored, looking out the window. The rain drizzles down in melancholy spirals. I think.

I wonder.

I reflect.

I don’t have anything to do, besides writing my circumstances. The students around me scroll through endless feeds, With each swipe, a message becomes clearer and clearer, Scroll.

Swipe.

Click and buy.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a lie, Because they believe anything they see.

Lies are fed, and eagerly eaten up.

They wait impatiently for the next one.

It’s entertaining,

It’s awful.

It’s understandable.

How can they know about real life?

Mindless is the culture today.

I’m watching an entire generation fall, Becoming accustomed to screens.

Mindless.

Thoughtless.

Asleep.

We are generation z.

Colophon

Staff

Avery Faulkner

Ella Flowers

Kenley Germany

Corah Satterfield

Adviser

Emily Pyeatt Arnold, CJE

Special Thanks

Estee Diaz

Linda Greenwood

Elmi Martinez

Melba Poppe

Alex Sharp

Sarah Zedler

Equipment

Computers: 30 iMacs

Programs: Adobe InDesign

Fonts

Larken

The Catalyst is a literary arts magazine created to feature Aledo High School student art in all areas. Like a chemical catalyst, our magazine was founded two years ago on the principle of vitalizing the innovation behind local fine arts. This third issue was created with the intention of unifying all kinds of art, visual and verbal, and aiming to amplify the creativity in each piece through the use of bold designs and colors.

Lexi Griswald

Olivia Cook

Lane Voskamp

Evan Bradley

Alex Davis

Annie Henry Johnnie Reed

Riley Greenhouse

“Hotel” by Johann Sommers