Trust is

By Trinity Grove

Trust is

Jumping into the deep end of a pool and telling yourself you’re safe.

Stepping into the dark and saying there is nothing there,

but beware

don’t let your eyes hang low;

too much sleep will make you sick.

(Class is in session.)

Be CAUTIOUS, for there are snakes in the grass,

monsters under your bed, and in your closet.

Watch what you say and be careful what you let them see;

court is in session, you WILL be judged.

Walking knives looking for backs, but to the pleasing eye they look

just

like

us.

Some trees

have more shade than others.

Lesson of the day: when you stick your neck out for someone,

make sure you can protect it.

(Class is dismissed.)

All I need

By Caleb Toothman

Spring dew drips off a flower of red

The morning light awakens me while

I lay in my bed

I open my eyes while tears run down

My skin

For that I’ve known I’ve committed a sin

Though I know I cannot say I’m sorry

It’s hard with all these feelings down upon me

Makes me question what I’ve seen

I sit there on my bed and weep

I pray the Lord my soul to keep

Just a little love is all I need.

The Calm Before

By Grace Keeler

When I was consumed, covered in the murky darkness of something else altogether, you came.

You said to me, hands outstretched, that you were here to bring me back, back down to the ground.

Because flying seems like a great idea, until you’re too high, and the wind blows you off course,
and now you’re in the middle of a full-on storm, and you can’t see, and it’s all too much,
and maybe you should just give up.

But then, there you were, the light at the end of my tunnel, my beacon of tranquility.

You reached into my soul, and you obliterated the storm,
and you left nothing but a light drizzle of memories behind.

And maybe we all need to experience a storm to appreciate the calm before.

Figure in white

By Luke Campbell

Figure in white I’ve done all I could.

Cut the ropes that pulled me above the

Surface and let me sink with my chains

That keep me where I stand and encased in stone

Now the crows wont let me hide and I don’t

Want to shine, deep in void’s shallow shores.

So the sun took me away

To all and everything fallible

                                                                             

In my wake away from the pink clouds

Blinded and buried underneath artificial light

And rotting outside a callous mind

My nerves tightened to a fastened world

Figure in white draw me a new change

Just something to dry out the rain

Now time sent me into the shadowed woods

Without a map, and eyes to see the stars

Now the snakes are pulling me down

Closer and closer,

Until I dropped and drowned

I’m riding a river to the light of everything,

To the dark of nothing when the sun is gone

The water washed my bones awake

To now decay with a bed of flowers

Until the end of hours.

When the flowers bloom

By Emily Melara Ramirez

I have waited for a long time.

I waited as leaves leaped to save themselves,

I waited as trees fell asleep,

I waited when the snow powdered the outside world and froze all life,

I waited all throughout the mute months.

With loneliness as my only companion and a short candle melting in my hand,

Your promise still stayed as a hearth I can return to.

The dying coal revived despite the cold smothering its sparks,

Its rebirth melting the icy terrain.

Warmth erupting to melt the snow around me and brought life back to the land.

As the primroses begin to smile at me,

As the lily-of-the-valleys whisper me sweet nothings,

As the daffodils fill me with warmth,

I demanded from the moon who gossiped to her stars,

Is this just temporary, or will it last?

This joy enraptured me as the hot summer went on,

But was calmed when fall came as the fire burned to comforting ashes.

Yet if the promise of the flowers are renewed every season,

My hearth will survive and that coal will burn on

Murmur to me your vows before the death of it all,

Before the world falls silent again.

Joy, please promise me all the seasons.

Then, even if the sun rises from the west and sets in the east,

This hope will stay with me throughout the year.