What My Mother Doesn't Know About Dresses
by Elanna Dructor

Fabric flutters against my skin
like the gentle wings of a butterfly.
I float down the stairs like a princess.
I have to constantly remind myself I'm not.
What my mother doesn't know about dresses
is that it isn't just an article of clothing.
It is a confidence boost.
A shot of expresso to my decaf insecurities.
I feel more like a girl,
pretty and simple and slightly more secure.

-

Just Another Broken Heart
by Elanna Dructor

I wish they never called me over
I can't breathe
You shouldn't be here
Why do you have to torture me?

You've got that smug look
It's plastered on your face
You're here on purpose
So why'd you leave without a trace?

They ask me how I've been
As if it's been so long
And you just stand and stare at me
All emotions gone

I miss you so much
I doubt I deserve this
Only thing inside my head
Is the memory of your kiss

I watch you get into
Your oversized car
I watch you drive way
But you still have my heart

I'll say I'm okay
Even though it's a lie
I can't admit how many
Times you've made me cry

I'm just another girl
I mean nothing much to you
Just another broken heart
I guess it's what you do.

-

Sisters
by Steph Dowd

Always there for each other
Help one another when help is needed
Show respect for what each other have accomplished
Recognize the different and enjoy the similarities
Go along to get along
Laugh, giggle, and joke around
Encourage each other to accomplish goals
Cheer for each other on the sidelines
Watch each other grow and get older
Work together.

-

Blah
by Richie Newell

The color of this room
reminds me of a jail cell,
dull, decorated with pointless posters.
The noise this room makes
when it wants to come inside
(is) filled with girls giggling
and loud scratching paper.
And when I go out this
room stays unchanged.
The trouble with this room
is it doesn't fit
the personalities inside.

-

To Blind To See
by Liz Vierra

They all laugh and make fun
When she walks by
They taunt and torture her
She keeps walking
With a sigh
She doesn't have the courage
To stand up and fight
But inside she's crying out
With all her might
They all laugh and make fun
When she walks by
Are we too blind to see
That this has once been
You and me

-

Double Sided
by Liz Vierra

When she's afraid
She pretends to be me
She feels I am fearless and untouchable
She doesn't understand how badly I wish that were true
Not meant to appear different to others
Wishing I could make her see
She's the real me

-

What Happiness Doesn't Know About Life
by Cheyenne Mitchell

Happiness is like a warm Brownie Sundae
Life is like driving on a road with a blind-fold on
Happiness is a palm tree, while Life is a guerilla
When dealing with Life, Happiness is hidden on the backburner
When the time is right Happiness shines through

-

An Aggressive Struggle
by Cheyenne Mitchell

She is distinctive
There is no one like her
Her midnight black eyeliner camouflages
Her inner thoughts
Thoughts that are darker than one would expect
A black hole filled with the inevitable
She has many friends, but she doesn't have any real friends
No real friends to tell her to stop
Her arms show the emotional turmoil
Each scar represents an argument
A feeling of never getting over love
A feeling of never being loved
Her wounds are addictive
She calls the her "drugs"
They are not peaceful
They are going to eventually ruin her
Before I let that happen I just want to let her know
That she can't control pain
But her suffering is optional

-

Broken
by Nicole Greca

The demon flairs and twirls around me,
flirting with me, dancing with me.
Whispering to me, making me vulnerable, weak.
The demon pounds words into my head,
making me drown in my ocean salt tears.
He holds me in comfort but this was a trick.

Breaking glass as if it was my heart,
trying but failing to glue it back together.
Crystals begin to form on my baby soft cheeks,
reflecting the image of your beautiful face.

Choking on spit and air waiting for you to see me,
I am nothing but a speck in the howling winds,
I just sit here listening to the demon,
being the demon, forming into nothing.
I am now the demon and the demon is me.
This is me, a reflection that is lost.

-

Untitled
by Libby Wetzler

I cannot find      the words to say.
They tiptoe up my throat reluctantly. I send my lungs to push
them up. They stab their heel into my larynx and scratch my vocal cords
which are swollen with rage. Like my clenched jaw they freeze and tighten on sight.
My words are trapped amidst a capsule of tension. The migraine of my mouth ensues. The gateway doors are ajar, letting in a whistle of a breeze. The wind lifts my
words off of their locked knees. They grab onto my uvula, their fingers
digging in. The back of my throat has the only power left. My
diaphragm has disappeared and my vocal cords are furious.
I will and pry my words out of my mouth. They jostle
between my teeth, embed themselves into my tongue.
My throat cries for mercy and wind catches flight.
Like breaking a glass bottle, the contents
of my mind spew out coughing and
sputtering, gasping for more air.
And start again.

-

Corners
by Libby Wetzler

I am invisible to you
I hide away hollow and concave
All lines meet at my head
Stopping for a moment before jumping on another plane
But never taking flight
I am not free
I do not belong to myself
I belong to a collection of stoic walls
An intersection of important roads
Or the crumpled vertical and horizontal lines that meet on a piece of paper
I am the crossroads
I am direction
I change your course
And you never thank me for it

-

Hectic Hallways
by Maura Fisher

Seven minutes, five minutes, two minutes
BELL
Rushing panting smiling chatting running slipping, falling, bruising
Up the stairs down the stairs
Crap! I'm on the wrong floor!
Up the stairs pass a teacher fast walk then sprint
Bell dings oh shit but wait
It's just the two minute warning
pass a friend no time to say hello
GOODBYE
I'm late for a class
Crowd thinning heart pumping
thinking up excuses
The room's in sight
Run run RUN
Through the door
In my seat
Ding goes the bell

-

Halloween
by Erika Fuhrman

The sun has S

                   E

                   T and the sky grew dark. The moon hides behind some clouds.

                                                Alone,                          walking s l o w l y,
CrUnChinG leaves   B
                             E
                             N
                             E
                             A
                             T
                             H your feet BREAK the silence. The wind blows, and leaves

                                                                                                   S
                                                                                                      W
                                                                                                   I
                                                                                                     R
                                                                                                   L
                                                                                                   around you
Tree branches r e a c h you, swinging at the wind.

                                                        L

                                                          O

                                                             W

                                                                E

                                                                   R

                                                                      I

                                                                         N

                                                                             G your head, you SMILE.

"Let's begin All Hallows Eve."

-

Toxic
by Allie Kemp

Whispers and snickering
fill up the hallways like a toxic smoke
seeping
out of a vent.
Mean and hurtful words of judgment to someone they barely know.
Dirty looks
and sneers
burn into you,
like a hot iron.
You tell yourself that you won't let it get to you;
you won't let it matter,
the pain
in the pit of your stomach,
the pain you feel when someone tells you
you're not good enough.
Whispers and snickering
fill up the hallways
like a toxic smoke
seeping
out of a vent.
Mean and hurtful words of judgment to someone they barely know.
They don't know your story
and what makes
you the way you are,
but they walk all over you anyway,
because
somehow you make it okay.

-

TIME
by Allie Roos

……Lucille Edith Miller died on November 23 of old age. When her three children went to her house to gather her belongings they discovered something rather odd. Every clock in Lucille's home was turned off. For you see Lucille tried to do the impossible. She tried to stop time. Time, the most common but unknown fear of all humanity. Life is a ticking time bomb, from the moment you are born the hour glass is turned over, time continues to pass by until the hour glass finally runs empty. But that begs then question of when do you start living and when do you start dying. Or is it that life isn't really life at all, but a slow death. A slow death that Lucille tried to prevent by freezing time.

WithHer

The bow is old and tattered

Like her

It is unique and special

Like her

It brings laughter and smiles

And tears and ears and tears

Like her

It is a symbol of better times

Of eternal friendship

And of the power of a joke shared between two people

The shape of a rose

Beautiful

Like her

But every rose has its thorns

And secrets

Like her

She sits there still and quiet

No laughter no smiles

Just tears

My mother places it there, beside her

Gently

As not to wake her from her eternal sleep

The bow is back where it belongs

In the hands of the most precious present to ever have walked the Earth

With her

-

I Miss You
by Justine Sammons

I miss you
more now
since I've been acquainted to live without you.
It's gotten harder to say goodbye
never knowing if it was that
a real goodbye.
Will you be there tomorrow?
Cause I need you.
You are the beat of my heart
the race of the beat
the blood in my veins
my pulse
my everything
so I miss you
when you're gone
and sometimes when you're there
when the gap of misunderstanding
is wider than the distance from my house to yours
but when you jump that gap
hold me
I'm complete
and I don't need to miss you
knowing, I'll be held like this
by you
forever.

-

Nana
by Casey Tobias

Crystal blue eyes
That once shone with warmth
Now glazed and unfocused
Popping out of her sunken face
Short, coarse brown hair
That stick up in wild angles
Reminding me of Albert Einstein
Thin lips that mirror my own chapped ones
Yellow teeth in need of brushing
Tiny and wrinkled hands with skin of porcelain
Blue veins weaving intricate patterns
Across the surface
Fingers bony, nails long and weak
only eighty-some pounds
her clothes hang loosely from her
Skinny petite frame
She shuffles, she grudges
She moves slowly along with a hunched back
Her cackling laughter traveling down the hallway
And while dementia took over her mind years ago
While she usually can't form coherent sentences
While she can't even remember my name
I love her

-

Distractions
by Casey Tobias

School
It's a sweet escape
The moment she gets home
It isn't candy, it isn't ice cream
Distractions are what she craves
Her attempts are desperate, in vain
Trying to block out the noises
The horrible noises
Screaming, cussing,
Plates smashing into a million pieces
As they make harsh contact with the wall
A symbol of her broken heart,
Her dreams dashed upon the kitchen floor
Her eyes flit around the room
Searching, searching
Her fingers stroke coarse fur
But even the dog's gentle, comforting licks
Aren't enough to soothe her muted tears
She fiddles with the volume button
The music blaring through the speakers
But even the loud, screaming lyrics
Aren't enough to soothe her troubled mind
A sigh flutters from her lips
Silently screaming at them, begging them
To stop the senseless fighting
Don't they see it's slowly tearing her apart?
Don't they see it's slowly killing her inside?
And she knows that the distractions
The sweet, sweet distractions
That she lives for, that she craves ever so much
Aren't enough
Will never be enough

-

I Am Fear
by Franqui-Ann Raffaele

I am in everyone
I creep along the ground     slinking behind corners     hiding in the dark
I jump onto those in their darkest times
I heighten the senses when I creep upon the skin
My claws sink deep into the very being
Clinging to the very fabric of courage
I place a fragment of myself inside the heart
While my teeth devastate the nerves
I tear the only hope of surviving me
Down     to     shreds
I plague the body with an unknown disease
This disease, this fragment of me
places doubt in every feature of the body
The fragment of me comes to LIFE whenever facing my original form.
I come in all forms
like      murky dark water
a dog's vicious bite
         a cat's sadistic claw
No one can withstand me
I am almighty and terrifying
I AM FEAR.

-

My Missing Self
by Franqui-Ann Raffaele

I miss the friend that I once had
The one deep inside of me
She has left me in the dark
Alone, it seems to be
She has gone away forever
Or so I tell my mind
My heart aches to find trace of
Her still left inside

There lies something askew
Aboard the confines of my mind
Clinging to the unknown thoughts
Slinking around inside
There is a mysterious creature there
Something that seems to understand
What troubles me
What seems to be
And what brings me back so beautifully

Talking with this unknown thing
It addresses me
Telling me the things I want to hear
And things I do not see
It tells me it is new
A better creation out of the two
The one that had turned herself out
She sent herself away
My Friend
So I could find myself