HOCKADAY FEMINIST ESSAY

Aubrey

Burns

I am raised in a bubble of power

All the while knowing what’s in the wind

Still, it’s almost been long enough that I forget Because forgetting is easier, weightless

I am raised to whisper the voice of a passive anger And I wonder

If the fear of the fall will hurt my throat

– More than the weathered rocks below

BLANK SPACE

Elle Chavis

WHY SHOULD I READ BETWEEN THE LINES WHEN ALL I FIND IS THE BLANK SPACE YOU ONCE FILLED?

Salt To The

Elle Chavis

Bend but never break, they say. Be exible but stern. Like salt to the sea.

Salt dissolves into water, and the water will forever be salty a erwards.

It will never be clean and pure again. Now it is bitter and sharp. Undrinkable, yes, but strong. If you must break, they say, come back as something even better.

Like coal into diamonds.

All the pressure and the stress will make you shine. What you went through, they say, will make you stronger.

I never wanted to be strong. Like Tungsten or steel.

But once the coal has cracked, once that salt has dissolved,

Nothing can turn it back to what it once was, So I suppose I must be strong like tungsten or steel. Shine under pressure like coals into diamonds, And bitter like salt to the sea.

When Open Eyes

Elise Cho

[ ] gurgle around mouthfuls of black bile and in between canine teeth — feel the puncture — something (sanguine, if you or [ ] could see) spilling, staining. [ ] sigh in exhalation, exaltation. you stir with unclouded sight. It crows; YOU stare. [ ] bow [ ] head in guilt — no weight should remain YOURS — until It begins, It gnaws — feel the undoing — do you scream in horror? the keen knife sees not the wound It makes. in perfect synchronicity, the world beats and beats — the hellish tattoo — oh, hideous heart — and WE are the confluence on which firmament and earth churn; WE are blest eternal, fixed. but hands grip OUR shoulders, shaking, shaking, shaking. gods cannot forget, but there is something forgotten — a paradox of the highest level. WE should dismiss — but WE miss — WE need not — WE want? — no, — [ I ] LOVE. —