Untitled Ashley Mills

Chubby by Sara Olmsted

Beautiful, thick bellies Thick, beautiful bellies Modern oxymoron.

Shadows by Kitty Rogers

The Heart's Immortal Toy By Sean Redenbaugh

Dreaming is the heart's immortal toy And in these dreams are wishes that we hold But sad will be the man who as a boy Dreamed the things he dreams when he is old

For those that linger on a lifetime through Carry with them all that's left unseen Representing wishes out of view And tokens of time wasted in between

Untitled by Ashley Mills

I watch the glass tube in amazement of the figure that looks back at me. His hair in dreads and ECKO is scripted across his chest. An angry mob of blacks' crowd around him, to hear what a fellow friend has to say. His name, Desmond Hall, could be read at the bottom of the screen next to ABC News. A reporter's voice speaks "Would you go to war to defend our country against Afghanistan?" A round nerf microphone is shoved in his face awaiting his reply. He grabs it from the reporter on his left side and an air of power blows through him. He grips the mic tight like a snakes wrap on a rabbit. He looks down and up again and begins to speak the words that will be quoted in the Indianapolis Star. Thick round lips begin to open as the voice began to say:

Beautiful we are Red, white and blue But the colors do not quite mix. Rippling cotton cloth flutters in the wind Restraining light browns, dark browns and olives Originally created by white stripes who seized the land of the painted brown. There are so many sensational colors disregarded Never having the chance of waving in the wind. So the answer to your question, Is no. I will not fight for a land that has not sewn my color in the flag too.

Dazed, I saw my reflection on the screen and shook my head at the young man's truth. His seconds of fame will be remembered in newspapers throughout the state. But, far more important to me, they have reached out and grabbed my troubled thoughts and embraced them as his own.