OLEANDER, EN ACAPULCO
Sam Ward
Class of ‘26
On the side of a pool in a worn out hotel,
there is a flower growing, not native to this land, but somehow finding its way here, to the mexico beaches,
It's beauty lies in all of its features
From its green stem to its pink petals
To the tiny imperfections that lie throughout
I fear picking the thing that it might wither away,
I see its path laid out to be much beyond myself
so I'll choose to leave it there till the end of my stay,
thankful after its gifted presence
so that one far after me might find it too and see the beauty of it as I saw it grow
Y crecer y crecer, creserà
The gold framed mirror
Sam Ward
Class of ‘26
The gold framed mirror,
can only reflect the outside world
And in a world of brokenness, and hardship,
It sees itself as the brokenness and the hardship
The gold framed mirror,
does not see its own Beauty it shows,
to the eye of the world
It thinks that all it can do is shatter,
so that at least a tiny part of itself be left with everyone who crosses the gold framed mirror
What It does not realize,
Is that all that will come of that
Is glass in everybody's feet
The Stupid Officer Jones
Sam Ward
Class of ‘26
I fear officer Jones
The idea that, one day, I may become him
With his bad knee, and his bad eye,
And his sore back, and his tired hands,
A man destined for greatness,
Shoved into a tiny box of a town
With stupid people, in stupid stores
And their stupid kids, in their stupid school
With their stupid romances, getting stupid married
Living their lives together,
And leaving me alone
I fear the inevitable shot in the leg that may hold me back
From becoming the great man I deserve to be
I fear the eventual state of mind that I’m stuck here,
while everyone else moves forward,
The reality that it's not them moving forward,
But me moving back,
As they state seated on the train of life,
I begin running back, all the way to the caboose,
The place “where I belong”,
As I sit in the dark, waiting…
Waiting for everyone to come back to the back
And consult the old constable with a bad foot,
And his tired hands, in his tiny town,
And his stupid job, in that tiny town,
That he shouldn’t be in, filled with stupid people,
Who care for him, and care about him,
Who lock up their houses at night,
So he can go to bed earlier,
And his stupid mind, that won’t let him see them reaching out
And my biggest fear, one so big I neglect to even let it cross my mind, is…
That it's already begun to happen.
All Around
Margo Windemuller
Class of ‘27
And when your head is pulled back
By the arms of the humid night air,
And the ache of exhaustion
You had traded for a Celsius
Slips over you, slow and sudden,
Dripping out of the deep and silent sky;
The world falls all around you.
You find it all too big,
And entirely too small.
Your shoulders are being tilted
In a direction you can’t name,
But your mind is plummeting
At the shock that
The world is all around you.
For a moment, just a small moment,
It’s like your eyes are opening
For the very first time.
And the stars are boring into your skull,
Yelling at you from the heavens
To look around and see
The world all around you.
Last Day
Margo Windemuller
Class of ‘27
My skin is rough
From the salt
As I tug this paddle board
Through the roots,
Into the Sun,
And into the shade
Shut your mouth and close your eyes.
Keep your tongue still and listen
To the breath and birth
Of the mangroves
Spraying the mineral of the ocean
Over our bodies
As our skin becomes rough.
When the time is called,
Lift the strain off your vision.
The light will come flooding back;
You won’t see the rot of the detritus,
But instead feel the life that roars,
Silent as the salt,
Back into our lungs.
Cycle of Existence III
Pierce Alpers
Class of ‘28
A voice,
I had never heard it before.
Yet I recognized it,
And wanted to hear more.
Memories flood back,
The life I had lived,
The life I had died,
Everything.
I look around,
Searching for the Child.
“The child not there”,
The voice.
I look where the voice came from
There was something there
I could see something
It was strange and alien,
There was a creature,
It was there
And yet it wasn’t
I did not know
I did not understand
I felt like I should
The creature was looking at me
Staring at me
“I see the thought within your head”
“You seem to not understand”
“But you will in due time”
I… felt like I understood more
Ideas swirled around my head
Possibilites, Impossibilites
I understood… Did I?
I felt like I did… Did I?
The world slipped between my fingers
I felt like I was holding it
But everything was wrong
The creature stared
The creature waited for my reaction
My mind was spinning
A possibility popped into my head
That… was not possible.
I thought harder,
Grasping desperately at the bag of possibilities,
Wishing for any other reason.
I… I was not a human.
That realization burned through me,
I wasn’t a human.
I wasn’t real.
Why?
“I sense your question, young one.”
“I know what you are thinking”
The creature spoke
It was reassuring to me
What am I then?
If I am not human then what am I?
Deep inside of me, I knew the answer
I am…
“You are a part of a human”
“Part of their lifetime”
“An essential part of their life”
“An Essence”
What was an essence?
I knew yet I didn’t know
The life I had before,
How I was the baby but I was separate from it.
I searched my soul for the answer
I felt it,
the answer was there
Yet I could not reach it.
“You will understand soon enough”
I didn’t know how I could know but.
“I have an offer”
I looked at the creature
“Watchers”
I knew what watchers were,
I remember them
But I did not remember what they did.
“My offer is this”
“You can become one of them,”
“Or you can redo this life as another essence”
“It’s your choice”
I could be any part of a human being
Or I could… an idea popped in my head
I know what watchers do now,
They teach, I could teach.
It was a hard choice
I could be an essence
I could be the essence of life
And influence a human to improve the city of life
Or I could be a watcher
A teacher
I could teach other essences
To improve both the city of life and the city of death
I could improve both,
I could have a say in both death and life,
I could be in between
Be both Life and Death
The city of life was amazing
But so was the city of death
I knew my choice
It was within my soul
I felt it resonate within me
I opened my mouth
The words that I spoke resonated throughout all of existence
”I shall be neither”
Whalin’ Around
Martha Hooks
Class of ‘26
Pleasant Trout
Martha Hooks
Class of ‘26
Red Hot!
Wills Johnson
Class of ‘26
Sparsity
Ean Landfare
Class of ‘26
Who do you pray to?
Ean Landfare
Class of ‘26
“It’s called flying.”
Ean Landfare
Class of ‘26
Gnosis of the Cage
Tessa Knutson
Class of ‘27
Still, Loud.
Rylee Raley
Class of ‘26
A Song with No Title
Noah Mizutani, Barnes Shields (ft. Charlie Johnson) - yes
Class of ‘28
