By The Little Lemons: Clara Monahan & Ella Green
By Isabelle Schremp
The cliff I call failure
I have stood by this ledge my whole life
Tip-toeing around a cliff
I have done anything and everything not to fall
I am not so afraid of the fall itself
For I am afraid of what’s to come after
What will my peers think of me
So that is why I stand right out of the spotlight
Behind the curtains
For I am afraid of the eyes
Afraid of the minds that come with
But then I met my fate
And I fell
But wait it was not the feeling I once knew
The feeling I thought I memorized
It was something enchanting and hypnotic
Something new
That feeling was my padding
My protection from the fall
Once I had fallen I could see that failure was not a cliff
For it was a path to new beginnings
By Isabelle Schremp
Summer break
The months of “freedom”
No school, homework, or tests
It’s our time to rest
The one time I can push others away
I can finally be alone with my thoughts
But sometimes my thoughts grow too big
For they don’t fit in my head anymore
They pour out wherever they can
Staining the walls and floors that make up my room
I love to be alone
But
Sometimes I need people near
To block my thoughts
Even if it’s only for a moment
By Lauren Tyler
I stitch my sorrow and I thread my pain
I color tapestries of fading blues and muted greys
By night I unravel the work of the day
Hoping that by fraying the threads
I’ll take my agony away
By day I play the despondent widow
Longing to see her husband’s shadow
Face marred by tears of loss
Eyes bloodshot - stained by grief
Absent of well-deserved relief
I play my part and I play it well
Twisting and turning the suitor’s threads
Showers of jewels fall upon my head
Until I retire for the night
To my clever stitching of another kind
After the long hours faded into days
I felt the months slowly slip away
Far too absent of his mind sharp and clear
My only intellectual equal
On this earth we hold so dear
But the day came when my boy left home
No longer a child but fully grown
He went in search of his father dear
Asking about my wants and longing
But also my deepest fear
Time started to fly again
And I returned to my infinite sewing
I held that grain of hope deep in my heart
Stitching it out into my tapestry of night
In a thousand silver stars
After time had reached its end
I started to raise the white flag
Finally deciding to surrender and give in
But then I suddenly heard a familiar tread
The man who inspired my many threads
Like an eagle come to steal its prey
He was here to fight another day
A champion of battle’s glory
He wreaked his vengeance
And brought down Troy once more
Now my longing has come to an end
My silver star has come home again
He completed my tapestry
Resolving my inner tragedy
Snipping the final thread on the trim
By Janie Monahan
The sun rises
to set.
Clouds are born
to be scattered.
Sure,
a flower’s bloom is full of beauty;
but in the cold and darkness,
the petals shrivel and shrink.
As the earth becomes hard and sharp,
and all of its treasure fades away,
we must look to the only one and world
that will always be there and stay.
By Abi Markey
Silence
Something that scares us all
Something we find comfort in
Darkness
Something we can all relate to
Something that we hide under the covers from
Fear
Something that leads to growth
Something that everyone hates
By Tailtha Luben
Dandelion petals fall from the sky,
Faint and lifeless -
It must be autumn.
On the verge of winter,
Everything is crumbling lifeless,
Except for me.
Here I stand,
Not tall, or proud, but here,
Catching the petals in my hands;
They leave me feeling empty.
I crumble them.
The world goes white,
Except for me,
And the dandelion petals,
Floating through the sky.
My tears fall like the dandelion petals.
Memories fall too,
Every little measure of thought,
Tattered on the ground,
Falling through the ground,
Becoming the ground.
Everything I love is falling,
Much like dandelion petals.
Everything is
Falling,
Falling,
Falling,
Dying and merging
With the white void.
It doesn’t hurt.
I wish it would.
I want it, I need it to prick my skin,
I need the dandelions to hurt as I clench my fist.
But they don’t,
And all I can do is cry,
And stare,
And wish I was anywhere but here.
I wonder when I’ll run out of tears to cry,
When my tears will sully the endless white,
When will everything finally fade away,
When will every essence of my being turn grey,
And leave me feeling very much unalive,
As the white void around me swims with life.
The dandelion petals feel so very alive in my hands.
I clench them,
But they still refuse to hurt.
I clench them,
But my body refuses to feel at all.
I clench them as they fall around me.
I clench them as the world turns grey.
I clench the dandelion petals from the sky,
Slowly consuming me as I die.
