Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jealousy

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By: Max Villegas

Tick Tock goes the clock,

As I wait in bed to fall into a state of mind

My thoughts haunt me, but one conquers,

Dominates them all, like the nucleus of a cell

Or the alpha of a wolf pack

It’s the water that I drink

The air I breathe

The clothing on my aching, worn out back

A thought I know I shouldn’t have

Something all humans would be ashamed of, like a young one

Sneaking a cookie from the jar, without Mother’s consent

It’s all I see when looking in the mirror, it stares back at me

Cackling, hissing, sneering

But it’s an addiction, not like others

I call it my fuel, as engine is to vehicle

It’s not possible to function without it

Jealousy has ruined me

Jealousy has become me, no-

Jealousy is me

Treading Water

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By: Lauren Wright

 

 

Seas roaring with fury.

Homes shaking with such force, it seems as if they’re dancing.

Families shivering in their basements, awaiting the storms end.

Oh, but little do they know,

Not only will the storm sweep them into its arms, but also hundreds of other families.

Roads disappearing under feet of water.

Animals screeching, children crying.

Emergency boat lights reflecting off the water.

Debris hanging off homes.

Families are broken.

No help is sent.

They’re ignored.

Sympathized for, added as another statistic, and nothing is done.

Just an ‘apology’.

An empty, meaningless apology.

No words can take the memory of such a horrific disaster away from hundreds of children’s minds.

Summer

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By: Mahnaz Behrouzi

Waking up, it’s noon, its okay though because it’s summer. I decided to go soak up some heat. I put on my lip flops from the night before. I feel the warmth all the way down to my toes. I am as happy as a kid who gets to buy a toy they’ve always wanted.Then I started walking through the bright, green grass. I felt a cool breeze pull my hair back. I smelled the fresh scent of a barbecue down my path. The summer air was speaking to me, showing me where to. go. As I was walking I heard a delightful sound. A song that brought children to dash home and get some cash. Just to buy the juicy, cold ice cream. Summer days are the deep ocean waves. This is summer, and everyone is in for a good time.

The Beauty of Imagination

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By: Jocelyn McCray

 

An explosion of color

My mind is reeling

Thoughts of the world glaze by

My mind’s eye blazes to life

It reminds me of times past and present

Almost like a world made of time

It creates wondrous places filled with fun and made of joy

All around me life flourishes

I feel the cool breeze

It’s like a loving embrace from my heart directed to my mind

As I happily wander this endless world of mine

I take in the sights and relax

Here in my imagination life is bliss

Dad in the Dirt

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By: Brent Taylor

 

He feels so ready

But his palms are so sweaty

Second guessing himself

He looks up on the shelf

He sees a picture of his wife holding his baby

I’ll see her again he thinks

I’ve been thinking of her lately

Thinking of the stuff I should have done

No wonder she said we’re done

I was an awful father

I’d come home and barely know my own daughter

She still loved me she said

But I know her love was fading

Fading like a sunset

He knows he doesn’t have much time

He has to win them back

He has to get this job

It was the only way

He has to build this family up from the ground

Get us out of this RV park

We should be able to sleep when it’s dark

Not have to sleep with one eye open

I’m sitting in the waiting room

His name gets called

It’s his time

He goes in and sells himself

“It’s over,” says the manager

“We don’t need you.”

He screams, “I’ll do anything!”

“No,” the manager says, “I already said it!”

“Please!” he pleads once more

“It’s for my family,

My wife and my daughter

This isn’t for me, it’s for them!”

The manager says, “Minimum wage from nine to five,

And that will be enough to get your life back together

And don’t ever wrong your wife or daughter again

Be thankful for what you’ve got and pray

Everyday and night tell them you love them

Pray that you’ll see the light one day.”

 

Father Galaxy

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By: Grace Nguyen

It’s known as the father of the night and sun’s other counterpart, the calming father of our solar system, though darker than the sun the galaxy will always shine brighter. The galaxy has stood since the ancient times surpassing even the mother of light. The galaxy can even reassure the sun in times of need and will do anything in his power to provide for his smaller, glowing pupils. The galaxy is an ever growing abyss of glowing stars and colors beyond the beauty of anything on earth.

Even keeping meteors out of trouble and singing planets to sleep. Though neglected many times the galaxy will always remain loving. Until it is stopped at the end of time, by a force more powerful than it’s own.

 

To Growing Up

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by Isabel Yabes

 

“All grown-ups were once

Children…

But only a few of them

Remember

It…”

How dim

The future

Will be

Should we lose

That innocent child’s voice

That cries out to us

“Come back! Come back!”

As we grow up;

How sad

The future

Is to be

Should we stop

Smiling

And

Laughing

And

Loving

As dearly

As we do

Now.

Like a

Bird,

A mere fledgling,

Grown up

And

Soaring away,

Your youth

Must not be.

As we grow up

Do not let it

Be lost

To you;

Do not let it

Be the

Keys

To your

Childhood,

Lost

And

In the dark.

Do not

Grow up,

Dear child;

Not entirely,

Not ever

Fully.

Your

Inner child,

You must not

Lose.

Yes,

Grow,

But

Never

Forget

The child

Within.

 

Poetry Publication Reflection

  1. I published an Inspired By poem.
  2. The source of my inspiration was the book, The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, specifically, the italicized quote in the beginning. It inspired me because The Little Prince had such a big impact on how I viewed life after I read it as a seventh-grader last year, but the above quote by itself left me in awe and wonder. So many people don’t know about how important this is, and I used this as an opportunity to voice this.
  3. The tone of my poem is somewhere in between nostalgic and protective, but I can’t exactly define which one it specifically is. When I wrote this, I was mostly thinking about how I would address someone I watch grow up, like a child or younger cousin — someone who looks up to me for advice.
  4. The theme of my poem is ‘Don’t lose your inner child.’ It may seem quite obvious, but that was how I felt it needed to be conveyed.
  5. Two examples of figurative language in my poem are:
    1. “Like a/Bird,”
    2. Simile
    3. The comparison of the one the poem is addressed to and a bird allows the reader to understand, as continued in the next few lines, the one addressed cannot lose their youth in the way that a fledgling so easily flies away from its nest.
    4. “Be the/Keys/To your/Childhood”
    5. Metaphor
    6. The comparison of one’s youth to keys was my way of symbolizing how easy it was to lose, akin to the way a person loses their car keys or such.
  6. Two specific ways I revised my poem are:
    1. I made a significant revision when I added in the entire section of “Like a/Bird” to “In the dark”. I made this revision because the poem itself seemed to lacking more figurative language and insight on what I meant in the remainder of the poem.
    2. In comparison the revision mentioned above, this one may seem very minor, but I took out the word “car” which, as I initially planned, was supposed to come before keys, but then I remembered people don’t always lose car keys, but mostly just keys in general. Simply, I took it out to make the metaphor more general.
  7. For me, this poem was somewhat easy for me to write, because, while the quote itself was really inspiring and riveting in the sense that it helped the words flow really easily, the figurative language was hard to implement, and it took me a few revisions to get them in.
  8. I am actually very satisfied (while Alexander and Angelica aren’t) with the final draft of my poem. Everything turned out the way I hoped, and it was really fun to write. I thought this was a great end-of-the-year project! But, if I could do something different, maybe I’d make more of a point on how grown-ups and kids differ from the point of view Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s characters, just to make it a little different.

My happiness

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By: Claire Kim

 

Saturday evening, wearing jean shorts and a blue T-shirt with flip flops

Sun shining on my face, hair sticking to my neck

As I walked through a crowded water fountain in the middle of the park,

I felt humid claiming up from my feet, although it was a cooling sensation

 

A group of adults laugh and chat “for years on end”

But I hear a loud, youthful melody coming from another crowd farther away

Kids and their parents line up for ice cream cones of different flavors

A man in a neon pink truck sweats in the enclosed space

While he bends down and hands an dripping, chocolate ice cream cone to a little boy

 

Wry face, an old man sits on a bench stationary like a rock beside the fountain

Getting irritated by kids splashing sparkly, cold water at each other

A tree bends over the bench and casts dark shadows on the ground

Teenagers stand beneath the colossal branch with phones, their best friends

They are wearing blank faces for one minute, giggling afterward

 

I found my space

An empty space next to a stone horse statue covered by vines

And sat down, unfolding a mat,

Placing red strawberries and apples onto the plaid blanket

I lie down, calmly viewing “the slow dance of clouds and butterflies” under the bright sky

I recall the vision of this diverse neighborhood

And smiled under the shining sun

 

The Clouds

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Young, undeveloped, growing

Teenagers

Juvenile, innocent teenagers

Held in captivity by their captor

We see these people everyday

All the time

Trapped by this evil

 

Something as small as a pen cap

But something way more dangerous… a  cigarette

 

Something so tiny, so harmful

Even people as young as toddlers

Consumed by these contaminated clouds of suffrage and depression

 

Some say it helps them stay focus

Others say it relieves stress from their head

And it will

But by the time it does, you will already be on the ground…

coughing…

then lying dead.

 

Fallout

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By: Mohamed Idris

The cold wall behind me,

Is eating away at me.

Just like everything else,

In this wasteland.

The Canned Food they give us,

Might as well be the dirt we build on.

The happy cries above long gone,

Replaced by dreaded screams,

Of those unfit for the regime.

I wish I could have stayed behind,

But that was impossible.

The stench was too much to bear,

The aroma still around me.

At least they were not those things.

Now, the fallout is no more…

In theory.