The Escape

by: Jessica Lewis

I sit here day after day, 
Watching the laughing monsters. 
These monsters hide beneath their extravagant disguises. 
They say that they are teenage girls yet they are so inhuman. 

One by one I have had to watch friends disappear into their trap. 
Their sticky, dirty fingers covered in the filth of lies and deception 
Pull them in and never loosen their grasp. 

Here in the courtyard all I see is hideous faces, 
Trampling feet. 
So I close my eyes and reimagine the world. 
I picture the flowing field surrounding me
As I lay down in the knee high blades of grass for my refuge. 

The world went in slow motion 
As a butterfly landed on my nose. 
There was so much sunshine embodied in this tiny creature. 

With no time to relax, 
The school bell rings. 
Though faint and distant, 
It pulled me back into reality. 

Sadly, the show in my head was over, 
There was no standing ovation.

Monsters on a Beautiful Day

by: Natalie Medina

I sit here day after day, watching the laughing monsters. 
I see a blue butterfly. 
So faint and distant.
I found an escape from the stress. 
The world in slow motion. 
Bringing me back. 
I hit so hard. 
Pulling me back to the surface of reality. 
Faces and feet were all I could see. 
One by one, i have had to watch friends disappear. 
They were all sunshine inbodied in tiny bodies. 
Slimy faces and dirty fingers. 
They would get no standing ovation. 
I guess that is the reality of human creation. 
So inhumane yet so real. 
People can be mean. 
Sometimes we all just need a place to lean. 
A place to laugh, a place to smile. 
Some can not help but breakdown. And lose everything they know.
Forgetting everything right before the test oh say it ain't so. 
The stress overwhelms us. 
Help save our happiness, your happiness. 
Our childhood at risk. 
We all need a break sometime. 
To sit on the soft grass 
And watch the monsters pass. 
To somehow find beauty within the madness.

Black Paint

by: Tegan Henne

In sea of people
She sees your eyes
Sending chills down her back
He
Used to speak to her in ways that 
no human ever could
She felt him
Fading away into darkness
Black paint on canvas
The smell, sickening to her
Left a sweet aroma to the world
So much life, she gets up
She smiles

A Life After Living

by: Grace Claywell

Standing in this world all free of dust, my shining blue eyes bleed

With emotions for the timing of my crash that filled the night sky

Also filled the hearts of those that felt the aftershock.

Time stood still as did my heart while I looked upon the tree,

The cushion to my fall, the keeper of my emotions, but

The tree felt no pain, only me.

Rain floods in through the windows as my shinier-

Than-the-sun hair falls down poetically and creates a blanket over my

Chest now soaked with red and clear alike.

I stared into the nothingness of the roots of the tree and

I was pushed by the darkness, shoved about until I was freed,

Never knowing until the moment of my escape that I had not managed it alone.

There stood a person, shielded by the night, ungendered,

Unknowing, all-seeing, a trace of gold thread

Slowly cracking the tightly knitted darkness.

This person could exterminate the evil in this world,

Tell the mountains to move, the seas to part, and so they would,

Their unique opportunities and talents those of grace and immortality.

My soul went with this all-knowing figure, leaving

Behind the world I previously knew, and together I was unafraid, watching

As my lifeless body slowly disappeared from view.

We Know what we are, but not what we may be

Katie the caterpillar only dreamed of becoming a butterfly. She has seen it happen before but some don't turn out so pretty. She feared that she would be an ugly butterfly like her family was. Her parents and even her siblings all were brown and black with no beautiful colors. It was time to go into her cocoon. She fell into a deep sleep in her brown wrapped cocoon. When it was time to come out of her cocoon she was terrified. It was the slowest process she had ever been through. Finally, she broke through her cocoon. She was so excited to see herself. She looked in her mirror. She was in awe. She was albino. She didn't know if she loved or hated it. Her first thought was that she could paint her own wings with paint her mom got her. She could changed her look everyday if she wanted. First she had to show her family. Being the butterfly she was, she shyly came into the room. They were in awe at her beauty. She was the most beautiful butterfly they had ever seen. All colors of the rainbow, even glitter somehow.

The Tortoise and the Hare

They told me seeing a turtle on your wedding day would bring good luck. Boy was I wrong. I wouldn’t say that I’m an inherently superstitious man, but I’ll take my luck wherever I can get it. So, when I was driving down the interstate on my way to the wedding and happened to see a tortoise crossing the road in front of me, I took it as a good sign. I was sure that the wedding was going to be as perfect as we imagined it. If only that were the case.

I was extremely nervous on the ride over there. I grabbed my rabbit’s foot hoping it would make me feel better, but my hands were shaking so bad I dropped it in front of my feet. I silently cursed and bent down to pick it up. I clumsily wrapped my hands around it after a fumbling around with it, sat back up in my seat and had to jerk my steering wheel to avoid a band of people walking in the road. I narrowly missed them and in my rearview mirror saw them yelling and making signs at me. The one in front with a yellow hat looked especially angry. I tried to brush it out of my mind and chalked it up to my luck that allowed me to miss mowing them down on the road. Eventually I reached the wedding location.

Everything started out great. I even saw a 4 leaf clover while I was walking into the wedding. Kristen and I decided that we didn’t want to have a traditional wedding in a church, so we arranged it to be outside. We set everything up in a beautiful clearing in a small forest right outside of our town. The sunlight pouring through the trees creating scattered rays of light, helped illuminate the array of different colored flowers. The lazily flowing stream and birds chirping created an ambiance that helped calm my nerves. The faint scent of evergreen let my mind wander to my earlier days, spending long summer nights at my grandfather’s cabin.

The time flew by in a haze as I readied myself for the wedding. Before I knew it, the time had come. As if watching though somebody else’s eyes, I was walking down the aisle. I stopped at the end of the aisle next to the preacher and heard him offer comforting words as if I was underwater. As soon as I saw Kristen walking down the aisle everything snapped into focus. I was there in that moment absorbing every little detail about her, knowing that I would remember this moment for years to come. I was so focused on her, I was a bit surprised when I heard the screams. I saw an entire herd of deer crash into the crowd.  Screams pierced the air as people tried to scramble away from the chaos. Birds were swooping down from the sky to attack people’s hair. I had never seen anything like it. It was as if every animal in the forest had decided to crash my wedding. There were deer, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, you name it.

Snapping out of my confusion and shock, I dashed down the aisle to Kristen. I grabbed her hand and told her to follow me. Making my way to the car I had to fend off birds and even had to shake a squirrel off of my arm. As we neared my car, I narrowly missed being trampled by a deer. We finally reached my car and as soon as we got in, I peeled out of there. I started driving back home since I didn’t know where else to go. I tried to comfort my fiance, telling her that everything would be alright. Although it seemed like my luck had completely turned against me it was about to get worse.

I was driving down the road trying to comprehend what exactly had transpired when I was attacked by a rabbit. It had jumped on my head and was gnawing on my nose. I yelled in pain and tried to get it off of me. That moment I felt my car slam into something and it felt as if I had gone over a number of incredibly large speed bumps. The rabbit was flung from my head and slammed against the windshield. I noticed a yellow hat on the outside of my windshield. Still recovering, I looked behind us to see what we had hit. As my mind began to wrap around what had just happened, my body rejected it. I opened the door and began heaving out the side of the car. Kristen was sobbing uncontrollably. Slowly, I dialed 911 and waited for help to arrive. Now I’m doing 10-20 in federal prison. Stupid rabbit.

CCW Found Poems

Patiently Drowning
And if you feel you're sinking, I will jump right over
into cold, cold water for you.
     I'm in danger of getting so lost.
     I'm bigger than my body,
     I'm bigger than these bones.
     But then again, is that part of the cost?
     Said I was the best simultaneously the worst.
     So many people whose problems I can't fix.
     It gets me thinking to question the same thing.
     And best case scenario, I should be cursed.
     I'm meaner than my demons,
     I'm colder than this home.
     For the rest of my life, for the rest of my life.
And although time may take us into different places,
     Well, I feel like I am cause I will
     never have you by my side.
I will still be patient with you.



Good Kids
He never promised that the cross would not get heavy,
But I'm beginning to think that I've been deceived,
So, lift your head, Cause we were good kids
feeling like you got nothing left, remembering he said help
would always come in time



Rising Up
Don't you ever give up
Until you find a place you feel secure
But no one wants to listen
So run til the race is won
And someday you'll return to this
Wherever in the spectrum you are.
We Will Never Give Up



Searching
People writing songs
Just let that word was over you
First
Right Now
I wanna seek you
It's all right here
If not us, then who?
And no one dare
First
Distribute the sound of silence
Love's healing hand will guide you through,
that voices never share.
If not me and you
I wanna seek you
It's time for us to do something.
Beginning.



Flat
I wish I could step back from that ledge.
I take a look at my life and realize there's nothing left.
I would understand if you do not want to see me again
He said, if you dare, come a little closer.

Even my mama thinks that my mind is good
I threw my soul in the air
I said show me the world
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

Year after year, the same old fears
Wish you where here
You could cut ties with all the lies
And I would understand

All along it was a fever.
A cold sweat, that could not hold us back
Then we could travel by something
laughing so long, we're just two hot headed believers.



Know My Name
I fell in love with someone who doesn't even
Know my name, Know my name
Beauty Queen of only 18
Singing Sweet Songs
Of melodies pure and true
She had some trouble with herself
So darlin'
Don't forget who's takin' you home
And I know this, I'm ashamed
No No
Every little thing is gonna be alright
He was always there to help her
Singing don't worry about a thing
And in whose arms you're gonna be
She always belonged to someone else
So save the last dance for me
By my name I'm not talking bout the
name you call me
I'm talking bout who I am



Finding The Story
My head keeps spinning
have I done enough?
Confused about how my life will be beautiful
Who will tell my story?
Just know that these things will never
change for us at all
From the ground up
For worse or for better
If this is just the beginning
I will be all you need
And we'll build this love
Beside you I'll stand through the good and the bad
I don't go to sleep just keep grinning
Know when my time is up
I have done enough
Who will tell your story?



Keep Swimming
Everybody gets high sometimes, you know
So take a deep breath and make it move
When you don't part the waters I wish I could walk through
And I, waited my whole life, for you
But sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
So take  a deep breath, I will trust in you

I cry sometimes when I'm feeling low
You shouldn't be drowning on your own
You're a saint, you're a goddess
There's nothing better than you