The Selinsgrove Literary-Arts Journal

The Selinsgrove Literary-Arts Journal Spring 2017

Starry Sea

By Ciera Zacek

THIS JOURNAL IS DEDICATED TO

COLT YORKS AND JADA GILLISON.

“The song is ended but the melody lingers on…”

–Irving Berlin

CJY

By SarahMae Toth Today, the sunshine was a little more grey.

Today, my heart was a little more broken.

And today, the longing to be in your presence again was a little more evident.

RIP Colt Justice Yorks

Colt Justice York

You may not have looked like everyone else

By Dakota Feese

But you still felt like everyone else

You lived your life

You felt sorrow

You changed our lives

You felt loss

You were the most special person

You felt hopeless

A variety of kinds

Kinda like we feel right now

But now you’re gone

But I know that you’re looking down on us from above

And we all feel lost

Spreading the sunlight through the dark skies

But once we realize the end is the new beginning

For those who need the light in their dark days

Of you and your great story We’ll realize that you’re upstairs with Him

Now you’re an angel of light Over us you watch

You had a heart of gold

Over us you shine your endless love

Would do anything to help someone in need of it

Onto us all

Would take your shirt off your own back So someone could feel warm for even one more night

Fly High Colt

You were the specialist kind of person to us all

Happy 18th Birthday

Native American Prayer I give you this one thought to keep— I am with you still—I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow, I am the diamond glints on snow, I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not think of me as gone — I am with you still — in each new dawn.

RIP Jada Dawnmarie Gillison

Table of Contents Starry Sea …………………………..………………… Front Cover Ciera Zacek

CJY ……………………………..………………… Dedication Pages SarahMae Toth

Colt Justice York ……..……………… Dedication Pages Dakota Feese

Roof …………………………………..…………………………………… 1 Owen Leason

True Worth …………………………..………………….…...…… 2 Dakota Feese

Lost Light …………………………..…………………………...…… 3 Nina Yang

I Will Live …………………………..………………………....…… 4 Keyana Zellers

Colored Barnacles …………….…………………….…....…… 5 Owen Leason

Untitled ……………………………..……………………..….……… 5 SarahMae Toth

I’m Lost ……………………………..……………………...….……… 6 SarahMae Toth

Table of Contents Handshell …………….……………………………...…….....…… 6 Owen Leason

Sleep …………………………………..………………………….……… 7 Alex Wentz

Silhouettes at Sunset ………………………………....…… 9 Maura Hensel

Sunset Beach ……………………..………………………....…… 12 Kristen Blair

Crystal Gulag ……………………..……………………......…… 13 Jennifer D’yavol

Crystal Alter …………….……………………..………......…… 14 Jennifer D’yavol

All Started With Pap ……..……………………..………… 15 Owen Leason

Lobster Trap ……………………..……………………..………… 17 Owen Leason

Barnacles …………….………………………………...……....…… 18 Owen Leason

Frost ……..……………………………………...…………..….……… 19 Cierra Honzell-Pratt

Table of Contents Spider Web …………………………..………………...………… 21 Owen Leason

Leef Sun ………………………………………..…..………..……… 26 Owen Leason

Tranquility ……..……….………………………………………… 29 Jami Guo

Silhouettes at Sunset ………….…………………………… 32 Maura Hensel

Cold Hands, Cold Heart, Open Mind ……..… 33 Maegan Bogetti

Hands …………………………..…………………………........…… 34 Owen Leason

Roots …………………………..………………..…………….....…… 35 Owen Leason

Seeing Through …………….……………………….......…… 36 Kristen Blair

Sarah Bear ……………………………..………………...………… 37 Owen Leason

Sarah’s Profile ………………..…………………..…..………… 37 Owen Leason

Table of Contents You Are You …………….…………………………….……....…… 38 Dakota Feese

I Don’t Want to Think ……………..……………………… 39 Arin Lohr

Ray on Me ……………………………..………………….…....…… 42 Owen Leason

Sarah ……………………..……………………..…………………..…… 43 Owen Leason

Mountains Rise ………………..…………………………...…… 44 Linda Trego

Demons …………….………………………….....………..…....…… 45 Dakota Feese

Enter Demons ……..…………………………..………..………… 46 Jennifer D’yavol

You Never Did ………………………………………..…...……… 47 Maegan Bogetti

Sounds of the Wind ………………………...…………..…… 48 Linda Trego

Nowhere Fast ……..……………………...…………….………… 49 Cassidy Stumpf

Table of Contents Overlooking Orlando ………….……………...………….. 50 Anna Piecuch

Ana ………………………………………..…………...………………… 51 Allie Walters

Habits ……..………………………………..…………………….…… 53 SarahMae Toth

A Tulip Field in the Netherlands ………………… 53 Anna Piecuch

Serenity ……………………………………………………………..… 54 Anna Piecuch

Ronald Reagan ………….……………………………......…… 55 Owen Leason

Hurt …………………………..………………..……………......….… 57 Dakota Feese

Back …………….………………………………..………………...…… 58 Owen Leason

Him ……………………………...………..………………..…..……… 59 Jacob Hoover

The Heart of Watkins Glen ……………..…...……… 59 Anna Piecuch

Table of Contents New York City ……….…………………………….……....…… 60 Kiana Brubaker

Untitled ……………..…………………………………...…………… 60 SarahMae Toth

Power of Fear ………….…………..………………….…....…… 61 Owen Leason

Ade Fear ………….…..……………………..………………....…… 62 Owen Leason

Sails on Mushrooms ………….……………………......…… 63 Owen Leason

Mushroom ………………………………….....……………...…… 64 Owen Leason

Theodore Williams ……..………………..……..……..…… 65 Luke Wolf

Davin …………………………………………………...…..……..…… 68 Owen Leason

Josef Jughastivilli ………………..…………...………....…… 71 Keyana Zellers

Daughter of Space ……..…………...…………..…………… 77 Jennifer D’yavol

Table of Contents Untitled ………….……………...…………………………….…..… 79 Colby Hoover

Faked Smiles ……………………..…………...……….………… 80 Dakota Feese

Cage ……..………………………………..……………….……….…… 81 Dakota Feese

Missing Piece ……………………………………………..……… 82 Dakota Feese

Suffocation ………………..……………………………………..… 83 Gina Twilley

Waterfall ………….………………………………………......…… 85 Owen Leason

Turtle …………………………..………………..……………....…… 86 Owen Leason

Jim and Pam …………….………………..………..….......…… 87 Grace Gilfert

Berlin Wall …………………………..………………..…………… 89 Keyana Zellers

Monkey …………………………………………………..……...…… 91 Owen Leason

Table of Contents See-Through Leaf ……….……………………….……....…… 96 Owen Leason

City Lights ……………..……………………………...…………… 97 Kristen Blair

Nature’s Beauty ………….………..………………….…..…… 98 Elise Keeney

Smile Pretty ………….…..………………..………………...…… 99 Alexis Marie Fulmer

The Playful Child ………….………………………….....…… 101 Jada Brosius

Rose Ridden Royalty ……………….....…………....…… 103 Jenna Eberly

Untitled ……..………………..……………………..…..………..… 104 Keyana Zellers

Small Mushrooms ……….…………………...…….………… 105 Owen Leason

Sidetree Mushroom ………………..……....…..…....…… 106 Owen Leason

Falling ……..…………...……………………………........………… 107 SarahMae Toth

Table of Contents Scary Bush ………….………...…………………………….……. 107 Owen Leason

Matt Healy x The 1975 ……….……...……….………… 108 Maegan Bogetti

Steamjunk ……..………….………..……………….……….…… 109 Jennifer D’yavol

Dystopian Florist ……………………………………..……… 111 Jennifer D’yavol

Small and Tall Mushrooms ………………………..… 112 Owen Leason

Glass ………….………………………………………...… Back Cover Owen Leason

True Worth

By Dakota Feese They say never give up, Never give in, Keep fighting that fight, So the devil doesn’t win.

Through the hurt and pain, The sorrow and the shame, The one thing you need to remember, Is that tomorrow is never the same.

Hold on to your hopes and dreams, For your fears are less than they seem, So to all of those who feel like they are losing the fight, And to those who feel like there is no hope in sight, Take a minute to look at the sky And remember that there’s something Out there bigger than you and I.

Roof

By Owen Leason

Just like today, The sun will shine again, Through the clouds and the rain, The suns still remains, And all the darkness will fade away.

So hold your head high, And feel the warmth, It may remind you, What you are truly worth.

Lost Light “Hey Ethan?” a girl’s voice cried out. Her voice was weak and hoarse.

“Why is the world so cruel?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, somberly. “The world has always been like that.” I peered at all the machines surrounding her. “Maybe it’s to teach someone else a lesson. Maybe it’s to balance the world.”

“Hey, Ethan?” she whimpered once again, her mysterious white eyes stared at me. “If I disappear, will you still remember me?” appear!”

I Will Live

By Keyana Zellers

“What are you talking about?!” I exclaimed. “You’re not going to disShe smiled weakly at me and patted the blanket covering her.

“There’s no point to keep believing anymore. They tried everything they could.” She sighed and clutched her blanket tightly. Fear filled her eyes and she started bawling. “J-J-Just promise m-m-m-me that you will n-not forget a-a-about m-me.” She held up her pinkie.

As tears began to form in my eyes, I hooked my pinkie around hers.

But she’ll never come back. It’s too late. I can never get my …

light

back.

Her smile widened before laying down, coughing feverishly.

“Goodnight, Ethan.”

That’s right. She will never return to me. There’s only one way I can get my light back again. I have to go after her.

Her eyes gently closed, her pale face seemed to be at peace. The machine next to her started to beep furiously as the line across the screen appeared less and less. Eventually, the beeping stopped altogether and the line didn’t appear any longer.

Bouncing up from my bed, I grab a nearby coat. I slip on a pair of sneakers and rush outside. The cold winter air brushes upon my face, the rusted street lights flicker on and off, and the wind howls under the starry night.

The tears poured from my eyes as I touched her cold, lifeless hand.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Rose.”

I stroll slowly, for about fifteen minutes, and finally reach my destination. I step onto the bridge and continued to walk forward. I didn’t cross it though. I stop in the canter, my hands on the railing.

“ROSE!” I scream, springing up from my bed.

Surrounded by darkness, I feel like I was swimming in a pool of sweat. The curtains reveal a tiny ray of light. I stroll over, the coldness of the floor stabbing my feet, and close the light.

It’s been ten years. Ten years since she disappeared from my life. Ten years when my life lost its light. Ten years in a world filled with darkness. Ten years of the same nightmare reappearing over and over.

I laugh. It’s finally time. Rose. Wait for me. I can finally see you again. For less than a moment, I feel the wind in my air and face, the river beckoning me with its waves.

But I didn’t greet it back. I feel someone grasping my falling hand.

“Hang on! I’ve got you!”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Colored Barnacles

By Owen Leason

I’m Lost

By SarahMae Toth I’m lost, in a state of despair with no sign of finding a way out.

Locked in a chamber of heart break and anguish and despair.

Driving me to madness, building a wall from the broken pieces of my heart.

Constructed higher and higher after each victim to my tragic romance.

Untitled

By SarahMae Toth You finally gave me a chance.

And with it came a sample of heaven and a free trial of hell.

Handshell

By Owen Leason

Sleep Ring…

Ring… Ring…

Ring… Ring… Ring…

I opened my eyes, the noise of my phone’s alarm waking me. I sat up slowly before I groggily looked around.

Ring… My phone rang once more before stopping. I threw my head back down on the pillow and tried to fall asleep.

Ring… Ring…

My phone lit up and I let out a low groan. I sat up on my elbow and reached for my cell. I picked it up and saw it was 6:00 AM. I looked at the caller ID before answering.

“What do you need, Dawn?” My voice was raspy. My friend mumbled something to someone on the other side. I barely made out, “…she would answer.”

“Hey. What are you doing today?” She asked, the sound of her chewing gum followed.

“I don’t know.” I slid my glasses on my face and looked at my blank calendar. “Nothing, why?”

“Come over so we can study for that Health Exam.” I suddenly remembered about the test we had on Monday.

“Are you sure we are going to study?” I asked uneasily. I still remember when she tricked me into going to a party where someone had tried to take me on “a trip.” I shuddered.

“Yes. I’m positive!” She replied, her voice jumping around. I sighed.

“Fine. I’ll be over in an hour.” I heard snickering in the background. I ended the call and got ready to go. I threw on a baggy sweatshirt and jeans and ate something. I fed my dog quick and grabbed my study supplies and keys. I listened to music as I drove the 10 minutes it took to get from my place to hers.

As I pulled into her driveway and saw her parents’ car gone, I hesitated as I took the keys out of the ignition and opened my door, taking my time I

grabbed my bag out of the passenger side before climbing out. I rang the doorbell and Hannah opened the door, smiling. She was wearing a shirt that showed her stomach and I grimaced. She started upstairs to her room and I followed. She had her books spread out on her bed.

“See!” She motioned with her hands out towards the bed. I saw something glimmer underneath her bed and felt a chill over my back.

“Boo!” I jumped and whipped around. A boy from school, Jackson, stood behind me holding his sides laughing. “You should have seen your face!” I turned back to Dawn.

“Let me guess,” I pointed back at him with my thumb, an annoyed look on my face. “A new boyfriend? Why is he here?” She smiled at me.

“You didn’t expect me to study without my boo, did you?” She kissed his cheek and I saw her look at him with a startling hunger in her eyes. I inched away, the uneasy feeling that had followed me into the house making my stomach feel messed up.

“Oh-Kay… Let’s study the-“ the doorbell rang and I gave her a look.

“Okay. So I invited a few friends over. We can study later.” She flashed me a smile before jumping down the stairs. face.

I turned back towards the doorway and Jackson made a mocking

“Boo!” He teased before laughing and following Dawn. I grabbed my stuff and headed downstairs toward her backdoor.

Dawn came into the kitchen in time to see me open the door and she ran forward to stop me. “Wait. Let’s play Manhunt before you go!”

“No.” I growled, fed up with her and her boyfriend.

“Please, just one round! While it’s still somewhat dark!” She made a begging gesture with her hands and I caved.

“Fine.” I snapped. “One round. Not two. Not four. One.” I dropped my bag off at my car and followed them into her large backyard. Trees littered the place, making it “perfect for hiding.”

I ran a little ahead of the others and hid behind a bush. I looked behind me to tell Hannah something and opened my mouth to open air. I closed my mouth and sat back, making as little noise as possible.

I sat there for twenty minutes.

Leaves rustled around me and the only other sound was my breath.

No birds chirping. Not even a single cricket ending its song. Goosebumps rose on my arms and another wave of uneasiness washed over me.

“Dawn? Jackson?” I called quietly. No answer, just dead silence. I stood up and started back toward her house. Soon I came back upon the bush and sighed. I started off in one direction and soon saw her front door come into view. That’s funny… Weren’t we out back? I opened the door and walked inside.

I looked around and noticed the lights off and my bag on her dining room table. I turned and closed the door behind me. I spun around to get my bag off the table, but instead the bush sat in front of me. I whipped around again to where the door had been and now a tree grew tall in front of me.

“Wait… but… what?” I ran off toward her front door again. I yanked at the handle and found it locked. I started off toward her backdoor and after making my way around her house I came across it. I grabbed the handle and felt something wet and sticky. I looked down and saw it spotted with a red color.

“It’s just ketchup…” I tried to reassure myself. I swear if this is some trick.

A twig snapped behind me and I whipped around. Dawn was there, not five feet away, covered in same red substance on the door handle.

Blood.

The realization hit me so strong I stumbled back into the door. The glimmering object I had seen before under her bed was clutched in her hand.

It was a knife, coated in blood. Her hands and clothes just as dirty. She seemed coated in a dirt and blood. I looked back up at her face and saw her head tilted slightly.

“One… More… Round…?” Her voice was high and thin, like a child’s.

Then everything went black.

-----sheets.

Maura and I

By Maura Hensel

I woke up in my bed, panting hard, sweat soaking my clothes and

My dog Bella jumped up as I awoke and she licked my face, excited that I was awake. I put a hand up and pushed her down a little bit.

“Hey girl. Calm down a lit-“ I stopped as Bella whipped her head around, looking towards my door. In the silence I could hear a scratching sound downstairs.

Unease pricked at my stomach and I felt a little queasy, my dream still fresh in my mind. I grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight, careful to be quiet as to not wake my parents. I turned my room light on before I crept down the stairs. As I stepped onto the hardwood I felt something wet underfoot. I slipped and fell backwards onto the steps, letting out a yelp.

I heard footsteps from the hallway upstairs and looked up to see my father standing at the top of the steps, eyes drooping sleepily.

“Are you okay Ray?” I reached down and picked up my phone before standing.

“Yeah.”

He yawned and nodded before heading back to bed, not bothering to ask me what I was doing. I took a deep breath and looked down at the wet spot I had slipped on. It was clear and when I looked around I saw a shattered glass lying on the floor a few steps away.

“Just some spilled water…” I muttered before going to fetch the broom to clean up the glass all over the floor. After I was done I entered the kitchen to check out the scratching sound I had come down to explore. I looked around for a bit, brows knitted in frustration when suddenly Bella let out a sharp bark. I immediately shushed her and looked around a little more. She barked again and I sighed.

“Do you need to go outside?” I looked towards the door and saw a shadow race in front of it. I jumped back into the wall behind me and almost let out a squeal. Bella let out a growl from behind my legs and I slowly stepped away from the wall. I grabbed a rolling pin, which had been lying on the counter with the rest of the baking supplies. I started slowly towards the door and looked through the panes. Seeing nothing, I started to relax. I put the rolling pin down and left the kitchen, my dog following me.

I went back up the stairs and turned towards my room. My face paled as I saw that my door was now mostly closed, and my light was off. Dad must have turned it off. Yeah… Dad did it. I struggled to convince myself as I stepped towards my room. I nudged the door open and watched as it slid open. I flipped the light on and immediately screamed.

---------I woke up, tears rushing out of my eyes. My hands shook as I tried to sit up. Calm down Dawn. I tried to take deep breaths to help calm down, but memories of three years ago smacked me hard in the face. My best friend Ray’s murder flashed through my mind again and I let out a small sob. I curled up and, trying to be quiet as to not wake up my college roommate, cried.

Sunset Beach

By Kristen Blair

Crystal Gulag

By Jennifer D’yavol

Crystal Altar

By Jennifer D’yavol

ALL STARTED WITH PAP

By Owen Leason I listen to my pap yap Sometimes I can understand it Sometimes I can't comprehend it Usually it is about politics, or the political lunatics, That control this nation Through public declarations Filled with false dictations.

Calling out the fake news That gives "facts" to me and you.

Though these facts tend to confuse Not just me, but you too.

Is this how shit is suppose to be?

The bees only have to worry about leaves.

Kids only have to worry about the ABC's.

And monks only worry about life's key.

Then why don't we?

Why do we worry about countries across seas?

Or what religion you believe?

So what if you are Muslim Or live in the slums, Or if you only eat plums.

I don't care about your shit if you permit mine.

I am not asking you to wait in a long line, I’m only asking for you to be kind.

Because you only have so many years To spread cheer, so please don't sneer.

Maybe you are a cashier or an engineer.

But in some way we are all queer.

Yeah, I said you are queer, Go ahead and shoot me like a deer, But before you do, know, Queer means different, not gay.

Weird, the way we use two words.

On the same day,

Queer and gay can be used the same way.

Hey, you are gay if you are go to the cafe.

Or if you sit in the wrong part of the hallway.

Really when you call someone gay, Because of the way they go about their days.

You just showing off your intellectual decay.

Ok maybe this poem has gone too sexual.

Maybe I should be more flexible, And bend to the common trend, Of not using my intellectual ability.

To fight society's current state, And leave everything up to fate.

Nah, I won't take the bait, And end up going through heaven's gates, Irritated about things I should've done, When I had the rhymes and the time.

Now it is time for me to go, But before I do, please know, I would appreciate it if you would go a social hike, And double tap to give me a like.

Thank you

Barnacles

By Owen Leason

Lobster Trap

By Owen Leason

Frost

hand out to grab the shortest girl’s arm. Now, usually I would just try to stay out of trouble, but right then I felt as if I had to do something. No one else in

It was a moderately sunny day when it happened. Not the type of day you’d expect to go bad. In stories, most bad days start out with a rainstorm or it’s cloudy and dark. That didn’t happen to me.

Nope, my life was turned on its head on a nice day. It was sunny, not

the parking lot was helping, and I couldn’t just stand by and watch those girls be harassed. I felt like I was the only one who seemed to care.

So, I dropped my bags in the car and slowly walked towards group.

The girls noticed me and were about to say something, but I shook my head at

a cloud in the sky. I’d been having a fun time actually. I was at the store getting

them signaling them to be quiet for a little while longer. It was too late though,

ingredients for a cake, it was my sister’s birthday the next day, and I wanted to

the men noticed the girls’ behavior and turned around.

do something special for her. I hadn’t spent much time with her lately, with all the unpacking and running around we had to do. You see, we had just moved to a new town and we were still trying to settle in. Mom and Dad were getting

“Now what do we have here? A little girl trying to play hero?” One of them mocked.

“Not quite. I’m just hear to ask you to leave these ladies alone. It’s

used to their new jobs, and Emma and I were getting ready for our first day of

quite obvious that they don’t want to talk to you,” I replied politely. The leader

school, which would be two days from now. Unpacking the house was also

of the men laughed.

quite time consuming, and in between everything none us really spent much time with one another.

That’s why I was doing this. Usually, we would just buy a cake from

“Sorry, girl, but that’s not going to happen. You see, we’re not going to let our entertainment go just because they don’t want to speak to us.”

“Enter-entertainment!” I exclaimed. I knew now what type of men

the store, but I wanted to make it up to Emma, so I decided we could bake her

these guys were. They were the type who only saw girls as something to be

cake together instead. It was going to be great… At least I had thought so.

used to entertain themselves with, and then once they’re bored of them the

I had just finished shopping, and was loading the car when I heard a scream from behind me. I swung around and saw something that I couldn’t believe. A group of girls were being harassed by a group of men. The men were

girls get thrown away. It was sickening. I was furious.

“How dare you call them entertainment. They are human beings. Not toys that can just be played with!”

towering over them with malicious smirks on their faces. The girls were yell-

The group of men were once again laughing. The leader turned to his

ing at them to go away, but the men were persistent. One of them reached his

groupies, “Well, well, lookie here. We’ve got ourselves a feisty one. She could

prove to be fun, don’t ya think, boys?”

Turning back towards me, he reached his hand out and grabbed my chin, “Quite a cutie, too. What do you say, girlie? Want to join my boys and me for a bit of fun?” Aghast, I ripped my chin out of his hold and slapped his hand away.

“Hmmm, sorry, sweetheart, but you don’t have a choice,” he snapped his fingers, and the boys, who were just laughing, snapped to attention, “Get her.”

At that moment, all the boys except the leader rushed at me, trying to grab ahold of my clothes. The others girls took this chance to run away. The

“When hell freezes over!” I hissed, dumbfounded that this man would even suggest a thing like that. The leader looked thoughtful.

leader let them, it seemed he found something more interesting to spend his time on getting. I didn’t dwell on that thought for too long though, I turned my attention back towards the boys who were trying to capture me. I dodged them and blocked their attacks that were aimed at me. I knew that I couldn’t keep this up though, eventually I would slow down and they would capture me. If that happened, I didn’t even want to think about what would happen.

At that moment, I somehow knew that if I wanted to get out of this relatively okay, I had to act now. Following my instincts, I lunged towards the nearest attacker and hit him in the stomach making him double over. I concentrated; I wanted these people to leave me alone. I wanted them to stop terrorizing others and me. I wanted them to freeze. All of a sudden, I felt something build up inside me. It felt cold, yet warm at the same time. It felt powerful, and it gave me a euphoric feeling. I let this power flow out and surround the men.

A dome of ice started to form around my attackers, trapping them inside. Despite my slight confusions at this I pushed more of the power out with the intention to shatter the dome and knock the men unconscious. It

Spider Web

By Owen Leason

happened just as I wanted it to. The men that were just trapped had fallen to the ground unconscious after being hit by stray pieces of ice from the now

shattered dome. I stumbled and fell down to ground, and looked around me.

ogy, the fact that no one else seemed to have them wasn’t a good sign. After all,

The men where unconscious, the screaming girls had quieted, the bystanders

humans fear that which they cannot understand or control, and right now,

had turned their attention towards me, and I was surrounded by ice. If it was-

that definition fits me perfectly. I could already see it in the people in front of

n’t for all that, I could have thought this whole scene was just a delusion, but

me, and I had no doubt that word of this ordeal, and my part in it, would get

the fact was, it wasn’t. I hadn’t been the only one to see that happen, and the

around town quickly.

ice shards were proof of what I did.

I had to get out of here, and by out of here, I meant out of town.

How had that happened? How could I have made a dome of ice just

Though I knew my family would accept me, powers and all, others might not,

by thinking of it, and then make it shatter? Could I make other things out of

and that could end up being dangerous. Fear causes people to do crazy things,

ice?

and I didn’t want my family being hurt if someone decides that the girl with All these thoughts and more were running through my head. I looked

down at my hands. Fear started welling up in me. I was scared. I didn’t know

the ice powers is a danger to society.

The only problem was that I didn’t know where to go. I knew I could-

what was going on, but I knew that it couldn’t be completely good. I felt some-

n’t stay in town, and it would probably be best that I didn’t go to a different

thing staring into my back. I turned around and saw the people that had stood

town. After all, the moment my parents realize I’m not coming back they’ll

and watched me get attacked staring at me in fear.

send out an alert to the police so that I can be found. No, it is for the best that I

They tried to look calm, but I had always been good at reading people, and in their eyes and stances I could see their fear. One of them stepped in front of the rest and asked,

stay away from people until this has all settled down, but where could I go?

It was at this moment I remembered that I was still in the parking lot and that those people still hadn’t left. I looked up and saw some people on

“H-how did you do that?” He looked a bit nervous as he asked.

their phone. Some were huddling close to each other talking in hushed voices.

“I don’t know. Nothing like this has ever happened before.”

Then I heard a siren. I saw one person get off their phone, and smile. The siren

It was true. My life so far has been a fair one. Mostly fun and carefree.

was getting closer and I realized that it was a police siren.

Sure there had been a few bumps along the road, but it was normal stuff. Stuff

Panic welled up within me. I had to get out of here, now. It didn’t mat-

like being teased for my natural white hair or getting injured in gym class.

ter where I went, it just couldn’t be here. Determined, I turned around and

Nothing too bad, but this, this was different. This was scary. Somehow, some-

starting running towards the back exit of the parking lot. The other people

way, I had developed these powers, and knowing what I do of human psychol-

didn’t notice me leaving, they were too distracted by the sounds of the sirens.

As I ran, I dodged around cars, shopping carts, and trees. I saw the exit and picked up my speed, I could hear the police sirens and the sound of cars skidding to a stop. I didn’t look back though, I couldn’t waste any time in escaping.

I had to get somewhere I could hide, somewhere I could think in peace.

As I rounded the corner out of the parking lot and into the main road, it hit me. ‘Somewhere I could think in peace.’ The thought reminded me of a past conversation with my father.

It had been on our annual father-daughter day. I was about ten at the time. My dad and I were having a picnic in the woods behind our house. We had just finished eating our sandwiches and were making flower crowns. As I was weaving mine, I told my dad that I loved playing in the grass and making pretty things with the flowers, grass, and leaves. He asked me if the plants were my favorite part of nature, and I told him they were. He patted my head and told me that his favorite part of nature was the calmness and serenity of it.

He had said that he loved that any time he was in nature that he was able to

Leef Sun

release all his worries and just think in peace. He told me that nature didn’t

By Owen Leason

judge, that it only listened.

At the time I didn’t really understand what he meant, I was too busy playing with the flowers. Looking back on it though he was right. Nature was peaceful, and right now peaceful is what I need. He really is a wise man.

I crossed the street after looking for cars. I knew where I needed to

good, not at all. If I keep leaving this frost, they would be able to find me easily.

Somehow I had to stop the frost from forming.

I thought back to what happened when I made the ice dome at the store. I was able to create it by just willing it to happen, so maybe if I will the frost to go away and stop forming it will. It’s worth a try, if anything. So, con-

go. There was a forest on the other side of town. I just had to get there without

centrating on what I wanted, I took a step forward, and another, and another.

anyone noticing me. As I ran through the town I noticed something., I was

Then I stop and look down. The frost was still forming.

leaving a trail of frost everywhere I stepped. I slowed to a walk. This wasn’t

“Okay, that didn’t work.” I muttered, “Think, Jaqueline, think. What

was different about the fight with those men?” I thought, and I thought, and

into a spear, and use that to catch fish. I could also catch small animals like

then I realized that ever since the fight I had this warm, yet cold feeling inside

rabbits. My powers may also be able to help me. Freezing animal’s feet to the

me. Perhaps that feeling is my powers? If so, then in order to stop the frost

ground before they’re able to run away is helpful. I just have to make sure I

from forming, I need to get rid of that feeling… but how?

only freeze the feet. That covered food, but what about shelter.? While I know

I sat down cross-legged, closed my eyes and cleared my mind.

Through out the years I’ve found that meditating helped me find solutions that normally wouldn’t come to me. When meditating, I stop overthinking things

you can make shelters from materials found in the forest, I’m not very good at it. It would be best to find somewhere that sells camping supplies quick.

I slowed to a walk, and looked around, trying to find any supermar-

and just calm my mind. This allows me to find simple solutions that I don’t

kets. I was thankful that I had kept my wallet with me when I left, or else I

normally think of. As I was meditating I felt something. It felt like a nice chill

would have had to resort to less than legal ways to get the supplies I needed.

was running over me. I slowly opened my eyes and was amazed at what I saw.

As I walked, I passed many stores selling a variety of products. After ten

The frost that had been spreading around me was now being absorbed back

minutes of walking and looking around I noticed a store on the other side of

into my body.

the street called “Woodland Camping”. Perking up, I ran across the street after

Seeing this, I realized that the key to controlling my powers was controlling my emotions. Thinking about it, it made sense, each time I used my

making sure the path was clear.

Arriving at the store, I walked in and saw it had exactly what I need-

powers recently I had been feeling some type of heightened emotion. During

ed. Grabbing a cart, I walked over to a shelf with collapsible tents on it, I

the fight it was anger, and when running through the town it was panic. My

picked up one of the boxes, and then looked for other things like sleeping

powers react to my emotions and my will. So, controlling my emotions will

bags, bug spray, a camp cooking set, some water bottles, ration bars, granola

help me control my powers.

bars, trail mix, a camping bag, and some rope. I gathered all this stuff and was

Knowing this tidbit of information, I stood up and started back on

walking to the cash register when I saw a rack of clothes. Looking down at my

my path to the forest. While running I thought about what I would do when I

attire I realized that it wasn’t suited towards camping, so I went over and

got there. I knew that I would somehow have to survive in the forest for a

grabbed a few pairs of pants, shirts, and jackets. The boots I was wearing

while, since what happened at the store wasn’t going to be forgotten over-

would be okay for life in the woods. Placing my new clothes in the cart I made

night. I knew how to hunt, my father had taught me, but my only tool was my

my way to the register where a man was waiting.

pocket knife that I always kept on me. I guess I could use it to sharpen a stick

“Found everything you need?” He asked.

“Yes, I did.”

“That’s good,” He rung up my purchase, “That’ll be $180.86.”

Not really surprised at the cost, I opened my wallet and pulled out two $100 bills. I handed him the money, and he gave me my change back. I took my bags and went outside. Sitting outside the store I packed everything into the camping bag and threw the plastic bags away.

Standing up, I put the bag on and ran off to the forest. It took me about an hour, but I made it there. Standing in front of it, I looked back at the town, knowing that this is what I had to do. I muddled up my courage and step into the woods. I walked for a little bit before I found a clearing. It was starting to get dark, so I set up camp. Tomorrow, I’ll have to go map out the forest, find out what types of animals live here, see what I could find for food once I ran out of the stuff I brought with me, and get used to my surroundings.

After setting up my tent I went into it and decided to meditate before going to bed.

As I sat there, I felt something. It was peaceful, warm, and seemed curious. In response to its presence my powers reared up and greeted it. The two mixed together and seemed to dance. It felt like my powers were merging with it, becoming a part of it. It-it was amazing! I could feel everything around me! Every plant, every tree, every flower and blade of grass. I could feel all of nature in its beauty. The feeling washed away all of my worries and filled me

Tranquility

By Jami Guo

with a sense of peace. It gave me hope and understanding. This was nature, and I, I was a part of it. My powers were a part of it. My powers connected me to nature, and nature connected me to the world.

I sat in my tent still reeling over the knowledge that had been shown to me. By the time my mind had return to its normal thinking pattern, it was pitch black out. I was getting tired, and I had a long day ahead of me. I laid down in my sleeping bag and closed my eyes. That night, like many to come, I was lulled to sleep by the sounds of nature with a smile on my face and a warm feeling in my heart.

For the next few months I lived in the woods, connected to nature, and away from the tangles of society. I relied on myself and my skills to find food, gather wood for a fire, and gathered water from the stream nearby. I trained my powers and gained more control over them. Every day I meditated and immersed myself in nature. By the time I left and went back into society I had changed, and for the better. I was happier, and stronger. My time away had matured me more than it would have had I stayed in the town. I was a whole different person, and I loved it. I felt whole and peaceful. Even though the circumstances that caused this were less than favorable, I wouldn’t change it for the world. My parents did ground me for quite a while when I got back, but to be honest, I expected it. After explaining to them the situation they understood, and welcomed me back happily. The rest of the town had pretty much forgotten about the fight and my powers, which was good. Also, those men were in jail now for harassment, apparently that hadn’t been the first time. Life went on. I graduated high school on time, despite my disappearance, and moved on to college. Eventually I married, but throughout all of this I never forgot my time in the woods. I always remembered my time there, and every once in a while, whenever I’m feeling stressed, I go back into the woods and just meditate. Allowing myself to connect to it, and become peaceful.

Silhouettes at Sunset

By Maura Hensel

Cold hands, cold heart, open mind

By Maegan Bogetti Cold hands, cold heart, open mind, Leaning against the window on the green polyester seat Driving past the dead limbs reaching straight up And the empty roads where only those living solitary remain Phone full of misdialed numbers and empty memories Pondering the duality of living and existing Cold hands, cold heart, open mind, Wishing for things greater than Yourself and pining after moments You can never recreate Driving by skyward stretched bell towers And aged bricks chipping away to land on the drab sidewalk Journal full of empty pages and even emptier words Wondering how a singular purpose can be found in this world composed of plurals Cold hands, cold heart, open mind, Frigid lips but warm breath slipping past them into the frosted air Condensing in a cloud foggier than the visions in Your head Driving by endless rolling hills And empty plains that all seem the same Confused and wondering why a state of happiness is so less inspiring than a sad one With a heart never before so filled-to-the-brim full and hit-the-bottom empty all at once All you know is that You are not One of them

Hands

By Owen Leason

Roots

By Owen Leason

Seeing Through

By Kristen Blair

SARAH BEAR

By Owen Leason Oh Sister Sarah Bear Sometimes I do despair Cause of your inner flare.

Every night send a prayer For your well needed care.

Sometimes you and I spar, But always do we share.

In my heart, I do swear Never to forget your Beautiful writer’s flair.

You Are You

By Dakota Feese Whether dancing the circle or sitting in the pews, the world is full of wonder and knee-jerk news.

For those full of spite and woeful complaining, the world is full of darkness; no hope remaining.

Diversity spawns attacking spasms, elevating hate and deepening the chasms.

You are who you are, smart as a fox; why confine yourself to a bleak little box?

For those full of love and compassion, caring, the world is full of brightness and warmth in sharing.

Sarah’s Profile

By Owen Leason

Diversity spawns a chance to build bridges, elevating love and life privileges.

We can make this world a beautiful place if we toss away frowns and put a smile on our face.

You are who you are, smart as a fox; expressing yourself you’re out of that box!

Abolish that burden of complaints you’ve been lugging; begin building bridges and get used to hugging!

I Don’t Want to think Carson walked into their college dorm room later than normal, flopping down onto his bed face first with an amount of force strong enough to raise the attention of his roommate Daniel. The sound had Dan lifting his head and tearing his eyes away from the book he had previously been reading.

“You okay, buddy?” A sympathetic frown found its way onto to his face when he saw Carson assuming fetal position as he asked the question, wondering what had his friend so down in the dumps. Maybe he was just tired…

Carson groaned into the pillow, wishing that he could sink into his bed and stay there forever at this point. It seemed worthless to start any work when he knew that he wouldn’t finish it. There was too much going on in his head and he honestly wanted nothing more than to lay down and get rid of the unwanted thoughts swimming around in his mind with some sort of distraction- maybe music, maybe video games.

Daniel tried to grab Carson’s attention, scooting over and patting the spot next to himself on the bed. Whenever Carson needed to talk Dan could sense it, and it went the other way too. They had been really good friends for some time and liked to think that they had some sort of connection.

“Let’s see- I’ve got a report due in two days that I haven’t even started, and a project due next week. To add to all of that I have a test for some math crap tomorrow. I didn’t even want to take math; I want to be an artist, all I’ll need is a ruler and maybe a calculator.”

Dan smiled weakly at Carson’s complaints, partially because he knew exactly how that felt and partially because he hated seeing Carson like this.

Sometimes he just wished that they didn’t have to worry about school and college, he thought about going on trips- an amusement park or something.

Anything to make them really, truly happy for a day.

“Hey, I want to be writer but that doesn’t mean I don’t take a bunch of annoying classes I don’t need. “All you’ve gotta do is pass, man. Put all of your best effort into what you actually enjoy.” Daniel’s advice was always blunt and usually truthful. He knew what he was talking about most of the time.

Carson sighed, fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt nervously. “I know; I’ve just always been an overachiever. I didn’t get anything lower than an ‘A’ until 7th grade. Do you remember the first time I got a ‘C’?”

Carson laughed, thinking about that exact time. He had cried about it, and yes he was in tenth grade at the time but for Christ sake, a ‘C’, that was awful in his eyes. It was awful in his eyes because he was supposed to be some special gifted child- you can’t do that with a ‘C.’

“C’mon buddy, you’re thinking about something, talk to me.” When Carson tried to avoid his eyes he glared, a stern look raising Carson to his feet.

“Yes Carson, I remember. I cheered you up by showing my awful grades, high school sucked for me. I got myself together, though. I passed and went to college. All you’ve gotta do is pass and then everyone is proud of you.”

Daniel sighed, thinking about the future, he knew that Carson’s teachers always held him to such high standards, wanted him to be perfect.

Carson tried to look like he wasn’t glad that Daniel offered as he climbed onto the bed, immediately resting his head in Daniel’s lap. He usually didn’t do that unless he was tired or mentally overwhelmed, and he was both.

It was just one of those days.

“You’ll be a famous artist and I’ll keep writing stories that are ‘too dark and have no appeal’ according to my professor. I hope you won’t forget about me when you live in your beautiful mansion surrounded by your fancy art.” Dan laughed softly.

Daniel was slightly surprised, but his hand moved to run through Carson’s hair all the same. When Carson did this it really was one of those kind of days. Maybe this position looked slightly romantic, not quite platonic, but it wasn’t weird for them. They were close.

Carson raised an eyebrow, contorting himself awkwardly to look up at Daniel. “Really, you think that I’ll be that successful? You’ve got more faith in me than I do.”

Carson closed his eyes and let out a sigh, relaxing into Daniel’s touch.

He usually tried to bottle all of his stress up and ignore it, but something about Daniel always had words falling out of his mouth like a freaking waterfall.

Carson knew that Dan thought highly of him, but not that high. He seemed almost afraid that Carson would go on to better things and leave him behind, which wasn’t even an option in Carson’s mind.

“I’m not leaving anytime soon. I plan to live with you in a crappy onebedroom apartment for a while, Daniel- if that’s okay with you.”

Daniel seemed slightly shocked at what Carson had said, a look of happiness and a feeling of overwhelming emotion threatening to consume him.

He always had assumed that after college Carson would move on and forget about him, leave him behind and do his own thing. Daniel blinked away a few tears that were welling in his eyes, not wanting to deal with that kind of emotion right now. old?”

“Oh c’mon, you don’t mean that, do you? Doesn’t living with me get

It had gotten dark by now, and the only light was from the moon shining brightly through the window. That special kind of light brought out the brilliant blue of Carson’s eyes as he sat up to face Daniel.

Carson’s expression softened, and he looked almost heartbroken that Dan could think such a thing.

“Daniel, I could never leave you to go off and live some weird art dream. You keep me together.” Carson’s eyes locked with Daniel’s in a moment of seriousness. “I need you, Dan.” Carson leant closer to Daniel, arms outstretched and a tearful smile on his face. At that moment, leaning forward was so easy. There was nothing stopping Daniel from crashing himself into Carson’s chest and wrapping his arms around the other tightly, happy tears streaming down his face.

Daniel smiled and squeezed Carson even tighter when he heard him start to laugh softly. “Don’t ever leave.”

Carson closed his eyes, nearly content enough to fall asleep right where he was. “Don’t worry, I’m staying- We don’t need to think, we can stay right here.”

Ray On Me

By Owen Leason

Sarah

By Owen Leason

Mountains Rise

By Linda Trego

Enter Demons

By Jennifer D’yavol

Demons

By Dakota Feese From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen As others saw; I could not bring My passions from a common spring.

From the same source I have not taken My sorrow; I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone; And all I loved, I loved alone.

Then – in my childhood, in the dawn

Of a most stormy life – was drawn From every depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still: From the torrent, or the fountain, From the red cliff of the mountain, From the sun that round me rolled In its autumn tint of gold, From the lightening in the sky As it passed me flying by, From the thunder and the storm, And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view.

You Never Did

By Maegan Bogetti

am reclaiming myself, I am rebuilding myselfI am falling in love with myself in every way that you never did.

I am falling in love with myself in every way that you never did.

I could've written you poem upon poem if you had cared about a single word I ever had to say but now I am writing volumes, absolute encyclopedias of who I am, what and who has shaped me, and every detail you never cared to know.

I could've composed albums of every song I ever found you in if you had only taken the time to listenbut now in every melody that falls upon my ear, I find a little more of the version of me you destroyed and a little more of the cacophonous essence of the life I am now living for myself.

I could've studied every theory and philosophy from times past in search of the words and psychology to explain what I thought we had between us if you had only cared enough to love my mind and not my heartbut now I am finding the answers within myself to why I deserve more, why I deserve someone who questions, challenges, and encourages me to not only exist, but to grow.

I could've sketched you portraits and landscapes enough to fill the gallery if you had only allowed me to express myselfbut now I am studying shading and technique and perspective, only in an attempt to find the point of view from which you saw me as an object to take up your time and entertain your false intentions.

I am falling in love with the books you never read, the sunsets you never watched, the stories you never heard, the moments you never cherishedI am falling in love with the words you never read, the music you never listened to, the intellectual you never met, the the art you never observed.

I am falling in love with the person within me you never really knew. I

Sounds of the Wind

By Linda Trego

Overlooking Orlando

By Anna Piecuch

Nowhere Fast

By Cassidy Stumpf

Ana 112 If only I knew what I was getting into when I met her.

If only someone warned me what she was going to do to me.

She promised me that I would be happy and that I would have all eyes on me – at least she didn’t lie about having ‘all eyes on me’. I’m lying in a hospital bed, with many eyes on me.

“Your BMI is low.”

“You’re lucky to be alive.”

“You need to gain weight.”

She promised me that I would look beautiful, and all the guys would want me, but I’m so alone. No one will get near me. They’re afraid that if they touch me, I’ll break.

123 She wasn’t always like that though. I can’t tell if it was my naïve mind telling me to trust her or that she was really telling the truth, but I didn’t expect it to go this far.

Her name was Ana, she promised me that I would have cheekbones, long slim legs, a flat stomach that everyone would envy, and a body that will attract everyone’s attention.

I was desperate for a friend; she kept me company, usually with cardio.

I’ve heard horrendous things about her, but I trusted her word.

I’ve read about what she’s done to people, I’ve read what she’ll do. I was so desperate for someone to be by my side, I didn’t even care. I wanted someone to tell me how it was, and how I should be.

118 She took over my mind. She took over my body. She took over my life.

Count the calories. Count the pounds. Step on the scale.

You are in control. She would always whisper to me.

Apples, water – anything that didn’t have artificial sugars in it, was my friend.

No one noticed I was dying. I didn’t want a cry for help, I just wanted the scale to go lower.

The feeling of my stomach growling had me content. It had feeling in control.

116 Timid and frail. My legs do not touch anymore, but my thighs are still huge.

My hair is thinning out like my body. I find myself wrapping my fingers around my wrist, it’s almost like I can feel myself getting thinner.

I’m feeling confident. She’s been helping out a lot. She told me to only go as far as I want, not to be intimidated by her. But I am. I wanted to tell someone about her, but I had to keep her a secret.

115 Ana has been getting furious over the smallest things. I was so hungry, I ate over my calorie limit. She wouldn’t allow me to rest, I did cardio until I could feel empty again. I’m so afraid that she’s going to kill me. I want to tell someone, but she keeps on threatening me. I’m only as sick as my secrets.

Her words started to deteriorate my confidence. She didn’t care anymore.

As for I? I felt locked up in a prison cell. I can’t escape the wrath of Ana anymore.

I tried to eat more, I tried to no longer count the calories, I tried to stop doing so much just to lose all of the weight but she was always there taunting me in the back of my head, trying to get me back into my old habits of starvation and locked up thoughts.

The feeling that Ana has given me, is alone but so secure. She took me in when I was the most vulnerable, she took it to her advantage. One concept that I’m now grasping is, I am Ana.

Habits

By SarahMae Toth I always notice the little things.

Handwriting, the way you say certain words, your habits while texting, the way you fidget when you’re nervous.

And I think that’s why I fall so hard; because I begin to know you better than you know yourself.

A Tulip Field in the Netherlands

By Anna Piecuch

Serenity

By Anna Piecuch

Ronald Reagan

By Owen Leason Start the war on drugs You give out free hugs Shrug of the haters How about the American workers and waiters Three strikes you’re out Mass incarnation makes me wanna shout Just trying to make change By putting Negros in chains, insane Just trying to do this for Nancy The effects sure are nasty I am saving American citizens By filling prisons up with dozens I saved dozens of families By destroying parts of communities You are talking to a famous actor I am talking to a nonfactor WHO ARE YOU? I am Ronald Regan And so we began Elected in 81 Hopefully you are done Actually going to rerun Won’t that be fun?? Won again in 85 Good luck trying to revive THIS FAILING ECONOMY Is it just me, or are the eighties crazy?

It is not just you, the whole situation makes me blue From the fall of the wall To the fallen star of the USSR. Wasn't it nice, when we won the Miracle on Ice? The eighties sure were the best of times The eighties were time of political crimes I saved western civilization

Placing nations under dictation I lead by the saying "the ends justify the means" But not everyone wants to wear blue jeans I showed off America's power She was such a beautiful flower And we had the most gunpowder You devoured all of the cowards This rhyme is slowly going sour Reagan, pick on someone your own size Look around with your eyes, tell me if you can find (the right guy)

Hurt

By Dakota Feese Depression is here every day, And it never goes away.

Go away! I yell into the dark, As if someone is there.

I feel as if I’m a prisoner In the dungeon’s lair.

And as always, no one cares.

Do I dare?

Dare to care about anyone but me?

Could it be, Someone there?

Someone there to care?

No, just an image.

That’s the way it will always be, No matter how hard I try.

I just want to get by.

I go through life day by day.

I thought pain was supposed To go away with time, But it’s not.

It’s still here, Here with the fear, Fear that I will get hurt more.

BACK

By Owen Leason Ok let me put on my cap, As I uncap, All my capabilities, That I have had tapped.

School is filled with crap, Sometimes I need a map, For the constant social trap.

People yapping through traps, As they argue about the gap, Between the normal chap, And the ever-growing wealth gap.

It is has been a while since my last rap, But I lately tried to unwrap straps, That tapped my word grasp.

But now I am back, To talk smack, About society’s wolf pack.

Bitin’ at Pac’s and Mack’s back.

Cause’ their tracks make you yack.

Look who you are different, Maybe gay, slow, fat, or even black.

So either way, prepare for the pack’s attack.

It is time people crack down, On this pack attack.

Him

New York City

By Jacob Hoover

By Kiana Brubaker

Dang Bang When he smiles, that’s my thang Schmow Pow When he laughs, I’m like wow His lips thick as hips sails my heart like passing ships Joshy-poo.

We can graze, moo.

I just want you.

I’m sorry.

Untitled

The Heart of Watkins Glen

By Anna Piecuch

By SarahMae Toth We’re not afraid of the dark, We’re afraid of what’s in it.

We’re not afraid of heights, We’re afraid of falling.

We’re not afraid of being happy; We’re just afraid of being hurt again.

POWER OF FEAR

By Owen Leason Welcome to the cross road...

On us, the question bestowed, Choose between happiness or fear?

You can walk toward fear.

But before you do, Please listen here.

I am a boy needing tweaks, If I want to be a sheik.

I am ready to be critiqued, By everyone, even geeks.

Go ahead and use your beaks, And peck me until I'm weak.

But, I turn the other cheek.

Rising with a higher peak.

So, are you weak and meek?

Or seek a stronger streak?

Fear will mentally screw you, Clouding your field of view, Until your whole world is blue.

We all run away from fear, We all have ways to fight fear.

Whether it is disappearing in beer, Or trying to be sincere, Or creating a fake atmosphere, Or spreading your forced cheer.

But instead of smearing fear, We need to accept her, As our best friend.

Cause' your relationship with her, Will never come to an end.

Master fear, then master life.

Life will fall into your design.

Your life controlled by fear, Will be forever behind.

So tonight, invite fear in, And be surprised by the delight.

Organize yourself tonight, Rely on the fear on your right.

That's right, fear will bring light.

And smite the dark of night.

Friends grow tight, And take the bite of hate,

Ade Fear

By Owen Leason

Mushroom

By Owen Leason

Sails on Mushrooms

By Owen Leason

Theodore Williams

“We are not going to pay it back.” Edna snorted at her verballyabusive husband.

“CREDIT CARD DEBT ACCUMULATES SEVERE INTREST YOU DUMB PIG!” Truman yelled. “HOW MUCH DID YOU SPEND?”

Theodore Williams is 50 years old and lives in the God and Me Motel with his father who is 90 years old and owns the roach- infested structure. He also lives with his stepmother Edna, who is 92 years old. There are 12 rooms in the motel, and Truman, Theodore, and Edna each live in their own. When there are no customers to the Motel, Truman sells tomatoes at farmers markets and does not report his earnings to the IRS. Theodore gets a social security disability check for his learning disability, which is only $750 per month. This is the family’s only sources of income.

“I only spent $220, and by the time they can come after us we will be dead.” Edna said.

Theodore is very bad at managing his finances. Of the $750 he receives each month, Truman and Edna take $650 of it to pay the Motel’s bills, leaving Theodore with $100 to buy personal things with, such as beer and video games. However, sometimes Theodore spends more than his $100 monthly allowance, leaving Truman and Edna with very little to no money to pay bills, as they are both ineligible to receive checks themselves. One time, Theodore spent $400 on a computer, leaving his parents with only $350 to pay bills. Truman angrily demanded that Theodore take the computer back for a refund, but Theodore had already opened it. Theodore also is a compulsive gambler, and would often spend $60 to $80 at a time on scratch- off tickets, as he thought that his tickets would be the jackpot winners, but the most he ever won was $200.

The next morning, Truman sat in the kitchen watching the news in his favorite chair. Truman had a habit of doing this.

One day, Edna came home from a wholesale goods store with bags and bags of food and bathroom supplies. Truman and Edna were under – the – table separated due to Truman’s anger issues, and they could not get divorced out of fear of getting audited by the IRS for Truman’s tax evasion.

“What on earth is in all those bags?” Truman asked his wife.

“It’s just some food and shampoo and stuff.” Edna said with a tone.

“Where did you get the money for that? I already paid our bills and I don’t even have a dime left! Did you win some money on a scratch off ticket or something?” Truman asked.

“No, I took out a credit card with Bank of America.” Edna said.

“EDNA YOU IDIOT! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO PAY THAT BACK?” Truman yelled.

“The debt will be passed down to Theodore if we are dead!” Truman yelled. “You better get out there and come up with $220!”

After that comment, Truman angrily went to bed. Edna did the same, and like usual, Theodore stayed up until 4 A.M watching TV.

al.

“Good morning, dad!” Theodore said as he poured himself sugar cere“Mornin.” Truman said grumpily.

“Why do you sound grumpy?” Theodore asked.

“Your step-momma took out a credit card without my consent. She spent $220 on food and other stuff we don’t need and now I have to come up with that kind of dough or else we will end up with credit card debt, which accumulates severe interest.” Truman explained.

Edna picked up the keys and was about to leave.

“Where are you going?” Truman asked.

“Out.” Edna retorted.

“Oh that helps. Give me that credit card before you leave, I don’t trust you with it.” Truman demanded.

Edna rolled her eyes and took a card out of her purse and handed it to her husband.

“Wherever you’re going, bring back $220 with you because if you don’t I’m going to lock this door and you’ll sleep outside!” Truman yelled as Edna walked out the door.

Later that evening, Edna backed the car into the yard, with the trunk facing the motel.

“What on earth is that pig up to? She better have that $220 in cash for me!” Truman said to himself as he walked outside.

Edna opened the trunk and a bunch of used toys and antiques fell out, as the car was packed with junk.

“WHAT ON EARTH IS THIS?” Truman yelled.

“I went to Salvation Army and Good Will today and picked up some stuff to resell at the farmers market.” Edna said.

“SOME STUFF? THIS CAR IS PACKED TO THE CEILING! WHERE DID YOU GET THE MONEY FOR THIS STUFF? I TOOK YOUR CREDIT CARD BEFORE YOU LEFT!” “I know. I gave you my Bank of America card. I didn’t give you my American Express card.

“YOU TOOK OUT 2 CREDIT CARDS?” Truman furiously yelled.

“HOW MUCH DID YOU SPEND ON ALL THIS STUFF?” “You better start treating me better than this or I’ll report you to the IRS.” Edna retorted. “I got all this at a bargain, everything was $840, but I’m sure we could sell this stuff for 3 times what it’s worth at the farmer’s market.”

“FARMER’S MARKETS ARE WHERE FARMERS IN POVERTY SELL THEIR DAY OLD VEGETABLES TO PEOPLE GULIBLE ENOUGH TO BUY THEM! THEY DON’T SELL LEGOS AND ROLLING STONES VINYLS!” Truman yelled.

“Well I’m sure we can find something to do with this stuff.” Edna carelessly said. “Now move so I can take this stuff in the house. “ Edna demanded.

“Yeah, you’re taking it in yourself because I’m not helping you.” Truman said with a tone.

Truman angrily went to bed again. The next morning, Truman woke up and made a pot of coffee. Something seemed different to him, but he couldn’t quite tell until he stepped on a Lego.

“WHAT ON EARTH? WHY IS THERE LEGOS ON THE FLOOR?” Truman yelled.

Davin

By Owen Leason Edna had piled her junk from the thrift stores in the kitchen, placing stuff over the TV and on Truman’s favorite chair, blocking the area off from him.

“OH THAT PIG!” Truman yelled. “I’M GONNA GET HER NOW!” “What’s wrong dad?” Theodore asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

“Your step-momma blocked off my special area in the kitchen with her Starvation Army stuff, and even worse is that she took out another credit card and created more debt for us!” Truman whined.

Edna walked into the kitchen and put bread into the toaster.

“Out of all places, WHY did you choose my special area to put your junk on?” Truman said with a tone.

“Because you treat me horribly and you deserve it.” Edna said.

Truman was about to blow but the phone rang.

“Sir, are you there?”

“Yes I’m here!” Truman said. “Now tell me about this $3,942.66 you’re talking about, my wife said she didn’t spend that much.”

“Ok well starting at the top of your bill you purchased 2 map packs for Extreme Zombies…”

“I’LL GET IT!” Truman angrily said.

“WHAT ON EARTH IS A MAP PACK?” Truman roared.

Truman picked up the phone.

“Hello?” Truman said.

“Hi sir, I’m calling to inform you that you currently owe $220 on your Bank of America credit card, and you also owe $3,942.66 on on your MasterCard, and you owe $840 on your American Express card. If you do not pay this by….”

The debt collector was interrupted by Truman.

“WAIT, DID YOU SAY THREE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED FOURTY TWO DOLLARS?” Truman roared into the phone. “AND SIXTY SIX CENTS!” “Yes, yes sir I said you owe three thousand nine hundred dollars….”

“FOR WHAT?” Truman yelled.

“Um…hold on, let me look for your bill quick and we can go through everything.” the collector said.

“I don’t know sir but it says it’s for some game,” the debt collector says.

“Wait a minute, THEODORE!” Truman yelled.

Without saying thank you or goodbye, Truman threw the phone against the wall, smashing it in two. He went to Theodore’s room and kicked the door down. Theodore was playing video games on his computer.

“WHAT ON EARTH IS A MAP PACK?” Truman yelled.

“A map pack? Why do you want to know what a map pack is?” Theodore asked.

“Because apparently it has something to do with your game! I got a call saying that $3,942.66 was spent on a MasterCard and map packs was one of the things purchased, and the person on the phone said it had something to do with your zombie game!” Truman said.

“Yeah, a map pack comes with a bunch of different areas that I can kill zombies in on the game.”

“Yeah, you do that!” Truman said with a tone.

Truman walked over to the toaster and cut the electrical wire off with a pair of scissors while it was still toasting Edna’s bread.

“YOU IDIOT YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN ELECTRICUTED!” Edna screamed.

“WHO ARE YOU CALLING IDIOT? YOU SPENT $3,942.66 ON GOOD WILL STUFF, AND YOU TOOK OUT A MASTERCARD!” Truman roared.

“NO I DID NOT!” Edna screamed.

The debt collector got back on the phone.

“HOW MUCH DOES A MAP PACK COST?” Truman yelled.

It was $19.99 for each map pack, I got all of the map packs you can download, plus I got a bunch of new game releases, all with my new MasterCard. Isn’t it great that we get this money for free dad!” Theodore excitedly said.

“Theodore, the money is not free. When you take out a credit card you are borrowing the money, and eventually you have to pay it back. “Truman explained. “ Didn’t you know that?

“No I had no idea you had to pay it back, Edna said that she didn’t have to pay it back, so I figured it was just free money.”

“WELL YOUR STEP MOMMA IS STUPID!” Truman said. “I’m not going to punish you because you didn’t know any better and your step momma influenced you to do this.”

Truman walked down stairs and Edna was gone.

“Oh god! Not again” Truman whined.

While his wife was gone, Truman planted flowers around the motel in hopes of attracting more customers, and Theodore went to get a Powerball ticket in hopes that he would win the jackpot of 85 million dollars.

That night, Truman ordered pizza with the money he made at the farmers market. Lucky for him, he was able to buy breadsticks because he never reports his income to the IRS. As soon as Theodore and Truman were done eating, Edna arrived in the driveway along with what it looked like someone else in the car.

“What now?” Truman whined as he walked outside.

Edna was talking and laughing with a younger looking woman. The woman walked over to Truman and handed him a certificate.

“What is this for?” Truman asked the woman.

“This is your certificate of adoption!” The woman happily said. “I represent a worker for the ASPCA and I want to thank you and your wife SO much for adopting these cats, I just know they are going to great home!”

Truman’s heart sank to his feet.

“WHAT CATS?” Truman roared in the woman’s face. The woman got scared quickly.

“Oh, your wife didn’t tell you? You all adopted 24 cats from the local animal shelter.,” the woman said.

“I picked up 50 bags of cat food too!” Edna proudly said.

Josef Jughastivilli

By Keyana Zellers

Theodore walked outside.

“What’s in all those cages?” Theodore asked.

“It doesn’t matter because they are going RIGHT BACK to the shelter!” Truman said. “Edna, get your butt back in the house!”

“Oh, I’m sorry sir but all adoptions are final, we cannot accept returns after the animals have been adopted and it has been recorded on the

certificate. “ The ASPCA lady said. face. home!”

this house again!” Truman exclaimed as dog cries could be heard.

Truman ripped the certificate in half and threw it in the woman’s

“What on earth was that?” Truman asked.

“I don’t know dad.” Theodore said.

“There’s your certificate!” Truman yelled. Take your cats and go “Stop it Truman!” Edna said.

“I’’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS!” Truman roared.

Truman followed the crying to a pile of damaged drywall, and a chocolate lab puppy’s head could be seen emerging from the rubble. The dog had turned white from the powder on the drywall. hoard.

Truman got in his car and drove away. He came home the next morning around ten. As soon as he walked through the door, a cat ran out of the house.

“Where did you go for 12 hours?” Theodore asked Truman.

“I went to the gas station and won $10,000 on one of those scratch tickets you obsess about.” Truman said. “I had to drive all the way to the lottery retailer to redeem it and after taxes I got about $7500. I went to the bank and paid off all of you and your step momma’s credit card debt, and I canceled your cards. Now, I’m going to take my $1,250 that I have left and put an ad in the paper to whoever will adopt all of these cats!”

“That’s great dad! But, we bigger problems on our hands now.” Theodore nervously said.

“WHAT NOW?” Truman whined.

Theodore led Truman to the kitchen. It was packed to the ceiling with dry wall, tools, and cats.

“WHAT THE…… HOW ON EARTH DID THIS HAPPEN?” Truman screamed.

“Edna called some guy and before I knew it a bunch of other guys were carrying in this stuff and piling it up in the kitchen.” Theodore said.

“HOW DO I GET TO THE HALLWAY TO GO UPSTAIRS? IT’S BLOCKED OFF WITH ROOF SHINGLES AND WOOD! WHY IS THERE ROOF SHINGLES IN MY KITCHEN?” Truman roared.

“Well Edna left about 30 minutes ago and I don’t know when she will be back,” Theodore said.

“When she gets back I’m going to tie her up and never let her out of

“Oh that poor dog.” Truman said as he pulled the puppy out of the “WHEN DID THIS DOG GET HERE?” Truman yelled.

said.

“I have no idea, I don’t know about anything anymore,” Theodore

Truman spent 45 minutes un-blocking the door leading to the stairs so he could go to his room. When he got there, he noticed his bed was covered with what it looked to be over 200 video cassette tapes. His closet was also filled with boxes of junk. Truman went downstairs and tried to escape his anger by doing what he loved most, which was watching TV. Edna arrived home with a car full of women’s clothing and shoes.

Truman walked outside in shock. ated.

“WHY EDNA, WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?” Truman exagger“Oh relax, I just bought some clothes,” Edna said.

“I just pulled a chocolate lab puppy out of a pile of dry wall. I would first like to know why there is drywall in my kitchen, and then I want to know where that puppy came from!” Truman yelled.

“What puppy? I didn’t buy a puppy. Maybe the guys that brought the drywall in left it there, but whatever. The drywall is in there in case we need it for remodeling. “Edna said.

“REMODELING?” ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW? I JUST GOT DONE PAYING OFF ALL YOUR DEBT AND NOW YOU’RE SAYING YOU WANT TO REMODEL OUR MOTEL?” Truman said.

“I’m going upstairs to hang these clothes up.” Edna said.

“GO AHEAD AND TRY TO GO UPSTAIRS, I’D LIKE TO SEE YOU

but you didn’t know any better. You’re still a good person.”

“Thanks dad,” Theodore said.

“I have an idea, Theodore, go gather up all those cats and that chocolate lab and put them in the yard. I’ll be right back,” Truman said.

Truman drove to the hardware store and bought 8 gas cans, and then drove to the gas station and filled them with gasoline. He drove back to the motel and put the gas cans in the yard.

“Dad what are you doing?” Theodore asked nervously.

“I’ll be right back son, get these animals as far away from this motel as possible.”

TRY IT!” Truman screamed.

Edna walked into the house and stopped at the kitchen. Every room in the house was filled with junk, and every possible doorway, exit, nook, and cranny had been blocked off with the exception of the top of the TV. said.

“Well I guess I’ll have to put these clothes on top of the TV.” Edna

“Ok dad…” Theodore said as he started putting the animals in the

Truman drove his car into the river, and used a hammer to smash the window and escape the car. He walked back to the motel and began pouring gas in the motel.

“Dad where is our car?” Theodore asked.

Truman watched in horror as his wife put clothes on top of his only source of entertainment.

“NOW WHAT?” Truman said. Are we supposed to sleep on top of the dryer? My bed is covered with VHS tapes!”

“You can do what you want, but I will be at a hotel using credit cards until they prosecute me for the debt or I die, whichever comes first!” Edna said.

“Have a nice life Truman. And DON’T TOUCH ANY OF MY STUFF!” Edna screamed as she walked out the door.

Truman fell onto his knees.

“Why God, why?” Truman said dramatically on his knees. “I’m surrounded by drywall, cats, toys, antiques, and VHS TAPES!!!” Truman yelled. a basket.

garage.

“I’m sorry dad. I should have stopped her,” Theodore said as he sat on “It’s not your fault Theodore.” Truman said. “You’ve done bad things,

“You’ll see.” Truman said. “Help me pour this gas, I’m gonna burn these problems away.”

After the motel was dowsed in gas, Truman and Theodore went into the garage. Truman launched a firework into the house and it erupted in fire.

Truman called the police and the fire department. When the police arrived, Truman put on his best acting hat.

“Are you guys OK?” The officer said.

“Officer please help me!” Truman whined. “My wife threatened to kill my son and I, she stole my car and doused our house in gas and set it on fire, and she stole all of these animals from the ASPCA! She sold tomatoes and didn’t pay federal income tax on ANY of her earnings! She took out credit cards and went off to some hotel after committing all of these horrible acts! I’m just a poor old man trying to support his son!”

Daughter of Space

By Jennifer D’yavol

Faked Smiles

By Dakota Feese I know I’m smiling but don’t take it as for what it seems ‘Cause the only time I’m happy is when I’m in my dreams ‘Cause my life is that lonely kid cast out in the shadows Full of tears, frowns, and many lost battles Down in a black hole trying to escape depression But you can’t run away from what will always be your reflection And as you run away reality is getting nearer And instead of changing you, you try to change the mirror But what do you do when the mirror falls down?

Breaking apart as it hits the ground And now you have nothing to hide behind And now you need the courage you have yet to find Because fear and sorrow are just emotions that play tricks on your mind Trying to prevent you from making your life and dreams intertwine But instead of giving in you try to break out Rebuilding the happiness that fear and sorrow take out Because the obstacles you have aren’t important it’s about how you handle it Because fear can only be as bad as you imagine it And sorrow comes with tears just as gray clouds come with rain And then it will pass quicker than it came So just be proud you didn’t cut yourself with the mirror’s glass And just know that the worst already passed But if you look in a mirror again, look with open eyes So if you don’t like the out, you can take a look inside.

Untitled

By Colby Hoover

Cage

Missing Piece

By Dakota Feese

By Dakota Feese

you are trapped in a cage… no one sees it… not even you… you don’t know what it’s made of… you don’t even known where it came from… but you feel it… it’s all around you… it is full of strength that it forbids you to move freely… it separates you from your wisdom and it strangles your thoughts… you are robbed but you don’t know what was taken… you’re in a place but you don’t know where you’re heading… you don’t even know how you got there… or who has brought you there… you know you’ve been through a lot but your memories are distorted… it is seizing you little by little… you can’t stay but you can’t go… you are trapped but no one sees it…

NOT EVEN YOU…

You do what you’re supposed to do, with no frown or fuss.

Not because you want to, but because you must.

Day after day It’s like a routine.

Don’t have too much to say, You only do the right thing.

Soon you feel empty, but you don’t know what it could be.

You want no sympathy.

But it’s something you can’t see Everything used to make sense, but now you’re lost in a maze.

You feel so tense, and you pray for better days.

Something just doesn’t seem right You look for an answer that’s not there.

You stay awake all night, But you feel like no one cares.

It’s right in your face and you think it’s safe, or should you forget?

Things don’t seem the same, But what should you do?

You think you should change, But change for who?

Understanding means nothing to you now.

Your heart is pronounced deceased This should you allow, or find your missing piece?

Suffocation Boys liked how thin I am… and often as I walk down the hall while I look down at the tile, I can hear everyone mumble all the same thing’s that the voice in my head keeps telling me,. They call me out for what I truly am; all the names that keep me insane. As I walk into my health class, I automatically start pulling down my sleeves to hide all the pain and insecurity’s that are marked all over me. I needed everything to stop.

In my health class, normally it didn’t make me uncomfortable but today we were learning the impact that an eating disorder has on your body. A normal human might think of it silly that I was uncomfortable.

115- 6th grade 130- 7th grade 110- 8th grade 102- freshman year I should have learned when my mother warned me what being ‘easy’ was. I should have known that I was going down the wrong path when my mother told me I needed to go on ‘the pill’. She didn’t want me to turn out pregnant before I was sixteen like she had been.

Just thinking about everything made me feel sick to my stomach and I wanted to puke. Mr. Jackson, my health teacher, called on me. “Mia , are you listening? I’ve repeated myself four times now. Would you please answer why depression can make someone stop eating?” I froze, I couldn’t do this, every one was looking at me and I really did feel sick. I replied, “Can I be excused? I don’t feel so well anymore.” He told me that I could, and as he was still speaking I bolted out.

Instead of going to the nurse like I should have, I went to my locker to grab my small purple bag so that I could self-medicate. I quickly went to the bathroom and isolated myself in the farthest stall back, not even thinking about it. I began to destroy my body and I couldn’t help myself anymore. I just wanted it to all go away.

1 slice 2 slices 12 slices I really couldn’t handle it and I needed almost all the medication I could to get my shaky hands to fill my insides. I needed to leave this place, maybe if nobody found me, maybe if I just could stop my fragile body.

1 drop 4 drops 12 drops Twelve drops turn into a puddle. This is the furthest I’d ever gone and this time I couldn’t stop. All the voices had taken full control. It happened more now that my mother left me with Mrs. Patricia, maybe I could go the same way she went.

The only reason I could even consider staying was for Jacob, my little brother. He was also with Mrs. Patricia. She was nice and all, but still, she hadn’t earned my trust. Jacob was my world, he kept me alive after our mother passed away two years ago, but right now all I wanted was to be reunited with her.

I wanted to sing and dance and just be with her, I needed to see her smile and hear her laugh. Even when she was in her darkest place she was always there for me and now I have lived without her for three years and I can’t do it for one more minute it hurts to breathe.

I started feeling like I was suffocating in the tears. I wanted to continue to make my blood flow because it was the only way I could feel alive, but I knew my time was coming quickly to an abrupt end.

I heard a girl scream and I heard sirens in the distance and a lot of yelling. I couldn’t understand anything that was going on. I felt strong arms pick me up before it felt like my throat was being ripped out and suddenly everything went black and I couldn’t breathe anymore.

Turtle

By Owen Leason

Waterfall

By Owen Leason

Jim and Pam By Grace Gilfert

Berlin Wall He tried to escape. That’s what I told them. He had tried to escape, and I shot him. He had tried to escape because he had family on the other side, connections to the west. My teeth chattered aggressively as I spoke, and I’m not sure if it was because I was afraid or because it was cold. It was the coldest it had been since I had moved to Berlin, since I had been relocated for this mission where I just shot a man. It felt like winter all over again. I told them about how he tried to climb the fence, about how he succeeded, and jumped into the land in between, and how when he did that, just at the moment, he glanced back to look at us, glanced back to see us, to see our faces, to see what we would do. That was when I shot him. I shot him with a gun that was too big for me to hold properly, right in the face, right above his eye, right at the temple, a fast, direct kill. I made blood spill from his face, down his cheeks, but it stopped just before touching the ground, and he collapsed right there, collapsed into the land between the walls. I had killed a man. I had killed my best friend and somehow… saved my own skin.

This was, and had been my first mission. I remember how excited I was when I was told where I was going to go, where I was going to be, what I was going to do. I had no real idea what the west was like; I had only ever heard stories which were told from secondary, tertiary, even quaternary perspectives. I romanticized the west, the outside, the foreign world, anything different from the only home I had ever known. No one I knew had ever been to the west; no one I knew personally had ever left home, but I was going to be going closer to the west than anyone in my family ever had. I was going to be going to Germany, all the way to Germany, to a place I had only heard stories about.

I was so excited when I told my mother that I was practically shaking. I was going to be seeing a place that none of us had ever seen before, that none of us had ever dreamed of before. It seemed so foreign, so absolutely exotic, so incredible, and I couldn’t wait. My mom didn’t like my choice in career to begin with, let alone going to some foreign place, the foreign west, to a country that we had been at war with when she was young. She was worried about me. To the best of her ability, she had always been that overprotective mom. She only had one child, an oddity, and she was determined that kid was going to outlive her. Sometimes I asked her why she didn’t get remarried, didn’t have another kid, and she just told me that she didn’t have time, didn’t have time to work, find someone, get married, and have another kid. Besides, she would say, that there wasn’t a better kid possible than me, but what a shame it would be if I died. What a shame it would be to have your one and only child die?

I lied a little bit to get the job. It wasn’t a lot, not even enough that I feel it was a determining factor, but I definitely lied about how much of other languages I knew. I told them that I was proficient in German; I only really knew the alphabet and how to say a few key phrases, but all that really mattered was that I got the job. They weren’t picky about who they allowed, really, and they should have been pickier. There were definitely going to be people from the Democratic Republic of Germany, and surely some probably only spoke German, but they weren’t everyone. They couldn’t be trusted to be everyone. There was always a risk of leaving them completely to themselves, a risk of what they would do, and what they could become. There’s no purpose to autonomy if they’re just going to destroy it for themselves.

I remember going to Berlin. I didn’t care that it was only half of the city, I just cared that I was there, that I was somewhere else, somewhere new.

It was autumn, and it wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t warm. I guess that based on temperature, it might have been a little warmer than home, but it’s not like there was a huge difference. My latitude hadn’t changed drastically, but the difference in longitude is what made all the difference to me. My teeth were chattering because I was excited, excited about where I was, excited to be here, excited even for training which I had heard bored at least one man to death. They forgot to specify that he really was just a boy, and so was I. It was in training that I met the boy, the boy who I shot, the one who I told them had tried to escape in order to see his family on the other side. I bumped into him while we were being informed. I don’t even remember what we were being informed about, but I bumped into him with a gun that was too big for me to hold properly. He was taller than me, stronger than me, and held his gun right because he could. But his face was young, and his eyes were this childlike green. He greeted me, quietly in German. I ignored him, pretending I didn’t care what he was saying because despite the two or three phrases I had taught myself in German, I didn’t know what he was saying. I fumbled with my gun, trying to turn my head and pretend to pay attention a little better. I should have paid attention so much better, but then he repeated himself again, quieter, but this time in a language that I could understand. He told me two things, but made sure to explain before he told me the specific details, telling me that he was bilingual, and then that his name was Eric.

He was so incredible, so foreign. The only similarity in background was that he was an only child too, and he told me how his mother loved him so, cared about him so, and did her best to protect her son. He had an obvious accent when he spoke about anything, and he talked about anything, including family members that he said lived on the other side of the wall. They live in the actual west, he told me. This was west for me, but it wasn’t really a part of the west anymore. It wasn’t the west for him because this Berlin and the other Berlin, they were completely different places now, and only one was really the west. He had grown up here, and the west was entirely foreign to him too, but

he had connections to it, connections to the West that I had only ever heard about in stories. He had a grandmother and cousins who lived not just there, but farther away, with some of this distant cousins supposedly living all the way in America. He never talked to them, didn’t even know what they looked like, but he told me that his mom told him that his grandmother wrote letters to them sometimes, and sometimes they wrote back.

He taught me a few words and phrases, including some swear words; I would have offered to teach him some, but he seemed better at speaking my own language than I was, swear words and all. Sure he had an accent, but I still fumbled over the stupidest words like a little kid. I wasn’t a little kid, and technically I wasn’t even a kid, but I guess you could argue that I was still just a boy, that we both still were just boys, but I had this anxious fumbling in the way I spoke then. Sometimes my teeth chattered when I told people things, simple things, like that I shot him when he tried to escape to the other side of the wall.

My teeth even chattered when it wasn’t even cold out, and when we would be whispering to each other insults directed at those around us, jokes that most of them couldn’t understand, like I wasn’t able to understand before Eric taught me. We were always grouped together. Most people were in pairs, but sometimes I can’t shake off the underlying feeling that they couldn’t trust someone like him alone. He had connections, connections to the other side, a family who he could try and escape to if he ever desired. He had thoughts too, and that was even more concerning sometimes than the connections. He told me once how everyone has connections to the other side; he’s just still open about it. He said how the people between the two worlds like to pretend they’re so disconnected, so different, but they’re not. He wanted his country to be whole again, reunified. He tried to talk about these things when he was sure that no one was listening, but people were always listening, and I’m sure if he had kept his opinions, his thoughts, more quiet, then people would have missed him more when I shot him.

Monkey

By Owen Leason

Our first mission was barely more than practice mission. We were going to help guard the wall, the wall between the East and the West. We were just starting out, and so they had us guard the wall with two officers, two officers who, of the four of us, were the ones really in charge. We were young, and they were supposed to help, supposed to keep things in line, but they were young too. We were all too young, too young to really be trusted, too young to be trusted not to do something stupid, too stupid not to try and escape, too stupid not to shoot someone.

I was in such an important position, at least I felt like, as I held a gun that was too large for me to hold properly. I was a protector of democracy, a protector of equality, and I was so important; we were so important. I couldn’t wait for the day to start, couldn’t wait to finally do something, but within an hour of watching the wall, I couldn’t wait for my shift to be over. It was boring

as hell. Nothing ever really happened along the wall. People never really tried stuff like in the stories I heard, and no one tried to come over like in the textbooks I had read. I was bored; it was boring. Everyone was bored because there was a reason this mission was assigned to two kids, still being trained, to two kids for practice. It was because nothing happened and it was boring. Eric and I stared at the wall despite the boredom though, for at least an hour, waiting for something anything to happen. The officers told us there was no point in just staring like that, no point in waiting for something to happen because nothing would happen. They called us from watch, called us from practice.

We were all just kids, and we were bored. There was nothing to actually fight, nothing to actually protect, so we pretended. We played a game, pretending that we were actually doing something important. At first we shot out the window. At what? There was nothing there, but sometimes we’d hit a bird, a small little bird, but that got boring too. We wanted to pretend like there was actually someone who was a threat. We wanted to play a game like war. It had been years since the last actual war any of us had ever known, and so all war was to us was a game. A simple happy, joking game. We shot at the birds until we got bored of the birds, and then Eric turned put on the safety for his gun. He pointed it at me, jokingly, and pretended to shoot.

Bored out of our minds, we pretended that we were enemies, pretended that we were opposing armies, opposing soldiers, opposing people. We pretended to shoot at each other. At first we pretended to aim, as a joke, a big laughable joke, but then we purposefully aimed. The game became more realistic, and we held the guns like soldiers, even though I still was not big enough to hold my gun properly, and I looked like an idiot, but regardless, I had great aim. I had better aim than Eric, even though he was definitely the more daring of the two. He acted like he was pulling at the trigger, with his fingers legitimately on the trigger, but his safety was on. I did the same, but my safety wasn’t on. I pretended to shoot at him, with a gun too big for me to hold properly, and when I pretended to shoot at him, I actually shot at him. I shot him right in the face as he glanced back at me, right above his eye, right at the temple, a quick, instant kill. He fell to the floor, with blood dripping onto his cheek. He fell onto the floor dead. I had just shot my best friend.

I felt horrible, and I wanted it all to be just a part of the game, just a big mix-up a mistake. I wanted him to stand up because I hadn’t really shot him because I had my safety on because I had paid attention when we were instructed about safety procedures. I wanted him to stand up because I couldn’t even hold this gun correctly, and there was no way that I could actually successfully kill a man with it. I just wanted to apologize, and for everything to go back the way it was. I wanted him to stand up because it was a big joke, fake, a façade. But it wasn’t, and I had just shot a man, just killed a man, and he was lying dead on the floor. The officers were up on their feet because this wasn’t going to just be bad for me because of what I had done, but it would be

bad for them too. They were going to get in trouble too, and whether or not I wanted to face my punishment, face death, was not my decision. It was their decision. It was their decision that we all, except for Eric would live, but I didn’t contest it. I didn’t stand on the moral high ground and try to fight in order for me to accept responsibility for my actions. I was frozen, and so I went along with a plan in order to save my own skin and their skins. They hatched the plan, as I stood there, contemplating what I had just done, in absolute shock, and trying not to cry because I didn’t want to be just a young boy, even though I still was one. I didn’t want to have just killed my best friend.

They yelled at me; they yelled at me until I listened. They yelled at me in a language that I could understand, in a language that Eric could speak better than me, even if it was my native tongue. They yelled at me to pick up the body of the boy, to pick up the body of the boy I had just shot with a gun that was too large for me to hold properly, to pick up his head, to place my hands near his face, where his cheek was stained red and he had a bullet hole on his temple near his forehead. He was harder to hold, harder to carry than the gun, but they helped me a little, but only I held the head, only I looked at his face as it looked back at me, and I could see where I had shot him easily, killing him instantly.

It was dark, and no one was out, except for us. It was just us. It was the early night when I lifted his body, lifted his bloody head, but no blood ended up on my hands because it had all dried by now. He didn’t bleed that much anyways because I shot him in the face, right above the eye, right in the temple, and it was an instant kill, and the heart stops pumping blood after the body dies, so he bled very little until the heart finally realized what had happened. We picked him up, and carried him right to the edge, to the edge of the fence we had watched, carried the dead corpse, the dead body of my best friend. We swung his limp body and threw it over the wall, over the fence, and into the inside, into a modern kind of no man’s land. We threw away the body of my best friend. He landed, crumpled, with his head glancing back in our direction, his young green eyes bloodied, all because he tried to escape.

He tried to escape; that is what they told me. They told me that’s what we would say, that we would call the real officials, the real adult officials, not just the officers who were barely older than me, and that we would tell them. We would tell them that he tried to escape, that the German boy with connections to the west had tried to escape to be with his family on the other side. We would tell them how they fled, how they ran away, and my mom would still have an only child, still have her little boy, but he wouldn’t have his best friend because his best friend was dead because he tried to escape. He tried to escape and now his mom, who only had one child before, would be left with no children, and the sadness to think that her son tried, not only to escape, but to leave her, to leave her all alone on this side of the wall, that he tried to leave her, to leave this place, and now he was dead, and he deserved to be dead. We would tell them that I shot him, as he glanced back at

the fence, glanced back to see if he was in the clear, but he wasn’t because he tried to escape, and now my best friend was dead.

My teeth chattered as I told the officials the story, as I told them what happened. He tried to escape, I told them, and I shot him like I had to, I told them. I told them how I shot him not in a stupid game of imagination, but in a real scenario of life or death, a real scenario of fear, of escape, in a real problem.

I shot him. That was the truth; it was the truth that I told him that he tried to escape across the Berlin wall, and that I had shot him directly in the face with a gun too big, shooting him in the temple for an instant kill. It was true that now I had lost my best friend, which I told them, true that he was dead, true that his mom now had no children, and my mom still would, still could have hers.

They would have shot me if he had really tried to escape and I didn’t tell them.

They would have shot all of us if I told them the truth, but now my best friend is dead and so is his name.

Just before the end of my shift, they had us go to retrieve the body.

None of us had any reason to escape; none of us were German, except for the one of us who was dead, and so none of us had ties to the west. I didn’t even have ties to this country I now found myself in, this city, this place. I knew a few swear words that I was taught by a boy I shot as he tried to escape, and I was the one who picked up his body, and placed my hands on the limp body of my best friend. The blood had dried right below his cheek as he looked at me to make sure that he was in the clear, that he was okay to escape, and now he was dead, my best friend, all because he tried to escape, and that’s what I told them.

See-Through Leaf

By Owen Leason

City Lights

By Kristen Blair

Nature’s Beauty

By Elise Keeney

Smile Pretty

children five and under to go into the gas chambers. Children six to ten were usually hung. Caleb and Aldo’s group, 10 and up, they were shot.

The Nazi that had previously hit Hayyim was walking in front of the child, barking horrid things.

“Aldo, where is mutter?” cheek.

Aldo squeezes his younger sister’s hand and bites the inside of his

“She is,” he pauses, “Batya, mutter is with vater. We will be seeing them soon.”

“Gut, because I am scared.” Batya looks at her small, dirty feet and scratches her head. She was only three, but she was very smart. She kicks some dirt on her brother and giggles.

“Small, worthless pieces of trash! You will all burn in hell for your mistakes. You are all mistakes.”

The photographer taps on the Nazi’s shoulder and they break to discuss a matter.

Caleb runs over to Hayyim and picks him up.

“Shhh, shh, Hayyim, it’s okay. Vater is here,” he rubs Hayyim’s back and begins to cry. Caleb was basically his father. He sets him down and kisses his forehead. Hayyim has a broken nose and a few broken teeth from being hit.

A Nazi yells at the group of children before him, “You despicable little hellions! Not only do I hate Jews, I hate children!”

The Nazi comes back suddenly and sees Caleb with Hayyim.

He leans his tall, slender body down to a crying boy, which the oldest child gave the name Hayyim,.

“Jewish swine can never stay in line,” he yells. He whipped out a gun and shoots Caleb in front of all the children.

“Halt your annoying whimpering you Jewish scheisse!” He strikes Hayyim across the face.

Hayyim was the same age as Batya, but was taken from his parents as soon as he was born. That is why the eldest child, Caleb, had named him.

Though Caleb was only 12, he was the children’s leader. He was also Aldo’s best friend.

Caleb looked over to Aldo with pain in his eyes for he knew exactly why they were getting their picture taken, as did Aldo. Caleb had been in this camp for three years now and knows the tradition of the children’s photography. They were going to soon be slaughtered in the most brutal ways.

Aldo knelt down to his sister and held her wrist tightly,

The Nazi laughs to himself.

“Soon all you little bastards will go back to hell, where you came from.” he drags a half dead Caleb to the side, shooting him again, killing him.

“Smile pretty,” the Nazi cackles, the photographer snaps the picture.

“Three and under, stand near the wood stacks. Six to ten, next to the camera. Finally, 10 and up,” he grins and looks directly at Aldo, “By the dead bastard. Schnell!”

The children run to their assigned areas and await their next orders.

Aldo kneels down next to Caleb, throwing himself on to him and screams through hot tears, “Warum? Warum?”

“Betya,” he said in a calming tone, “Betya, you’re going to probably go shower soon and I want you to hold Hayyim’s hand. Remember, he is family and our brother.”

The Nazi sends the six to ten year old group first. In the distance we hear “Eins, Zwei, Drei,” then the noise of strained ropes.

“Why can’t I hold your hand, Aldo,” she looks down at him with large, brown eyes, “Aldo, please don’t leave me.”

it.

Aldo takes a sharp breath and stood up. It was customary here for the

Ten and up, in second. We slowly walk to the wooden wall and face “Aldo! Come back, Aldo,” Betya screams in the distance, for she does

not understand she is about to witness her older brother be murdered. The guns crack. Betya squeals and tries to run but is caught and picked up by a Nazi.

The rest of the children are picked up or dragged by the Nazis to the gas chambers. Once the door is slammed shut, Betya begins to run around screaming, “Hayyim! Hayyim, where are you?”

A small whimper is heard, it is Hayyim. Betya runs to him and holds his hand.

“Aldo says we are getting a shower, Hayyim!”

The Playful Child

By Jada Brosius

Small bead-like balls are dropped into the chamber from a small open in the roof.

“Soap?” Betya questions.

It gets hard to breathe. Betya squeezes Hayyim’s hands tightly, he does not squeeze back. Betya drops to the floor, coughing.

“Wake up, kleiner bruder, wake up.” Hayyim is dead.

Betya hugs him and takes her final breath.

Untitled

By Keyana Zeller

Rose Ridden Royalty

By Jenna Eberly

Sidetree Mushroom

By Owen Leason

Small Mushrooms

By Owen Leason

Falling

By SarahMae Toth I’m falling for you, and every time I hear your voice, I fall deeper and deeper.

And before I wrap my mind around it, I’m stuck in a world of beautiful chaos called love. I’ve dug my hole with no intention of climbing out and no desire to waste my breath yelling for help when that same breath could be used to explain to you my cluttered thoughts and together we could organize them in the vows we commit to for the rest of our lives.

Scary Bush

By Owen Leason

Matt Healy x The 1975

By Maegan Bogetti

Steamjunk

By Jennifer D’yavol

Dystopian Florist

By Jennifer D’yavol

Small and Tall Mushrooms

By Owen Leason

SLAJ Officers (from left)

Historian - Allie Walters Vice-President - Anna Piecuch President - Maegan Bogetti Treasurer - Kiana Brubaker Secretary - Owen Moyer

SLAJ Advisor Mrs. Shannon Frantz

SLAJ Members Front Row (from left): SarahMae Toth Allie Walters Maura Hensel Maegan Bogetti

Back Row (from left): Alex Wentz Nina Yang Anna Piecuch Kiana Brubaker Owen Moyer Owen Leason

Glass

By Owen Leason

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at

things in a different way. ~Edward de Bon