Yasmin Nayrouz

One Sea, Two Views

Yasmin Nayrouz

I was by the sea When she asked me What do I see

I see water and sunshine and a never-ending horizon

But she viewed the sea much differently than me

She saw the waves like flames The darkness of its depth and the fear of being lost

I asked her why She began to cry with a different lens on her eye Each teardrop added to the waves her vision blurry—a haze silver dripping down her face

I wiped her eyes to help her see There is beauty in this unforgiving sea

Sunset on the Edge of Heaven

Gabrielle M. Borgia

Autumn Lives in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey

Cade Kaminsky

In the middle of Woodside Field In a rocking chair of junkyard rubber Surrounded by dying armies of scarlet and orange I think of families at Conklin Farm gorging on cider donuts And the smell of homemade cider that floats in fleeting winds of yesteryears And the scarecrow who grins at dusk behind his burlap face Dreaming of walking through the corn fields to the glory of old age As Ella Fitzgerald croons in my ear about Autumn in New York

All the triumphant sons hop on the Hudson River Line To go home, hug their fathers, and watch Eli Manning on Sunday And the mothers’ smiles radiantly beam in their eyes Suggesting a natural happiness I know I will never have Neath the cover of October clouds

Therefore, I live coldly and unholy until Autumn At the end of September when Autumn Grows prepubescently in the bluets of Conklin Farm And in Autumn In Franklin Lakes, I know that in Autumn I am my best self-- then and only then In Autumn.