Poison

By Sophie Howard

Pick your poison

Well if that’s the way you are thinking

Then scotch

But I’d rather prefer arsenic

It’s my favorite you know

Favorite element

Favorite poison

Favorite word to say in order to scare someone

Sirens

I hear the sirens coming closer

Getting closer and closer

As I’m realizing I could die tonight

I picked the wrong poison

When I chewed on that glowstick

The acid broke free and into my mouth

And as I tried to get it out

I lay down hearing the sirens coming

My neighbors start to worry why they are there

The sirens

The meds come in and say I’ll be fine

I was fine

I wasn’t gonna die

I picked the wrong poison

Consequences

By Talitha Luben

I wonder if you ever think of the consequences,

Of the little worlds you impact, 

Of the creatures and the wild things,

Or do you simply push aside the facts?

Because you’re killing my home,

Our home,

You’re scraping up the brush,

You’re filling in the stream, 

You’re cutting down the trees,

You horrible, horrible, man,

Do you know what you do?

You’ve doomed us all, 

Now that you’ve given yourself a place to go,

You’ve left us out in the cold,

In the freezing chill of winter,

You ravenous, sinful, man,

We’re all going to die because of you. 

Every morning we flee farther in

When we see your face,

When we feel the wind rush around the machines, 

We run when we see you point at the next tree,

When you point at the next life you’re going to take.

And now I’m running,

Because you’ve taken the last tree,

And all that’s left is endless pavement.

It hurts to run on,

It cuts deep, and I am aware of how open I am. 

I hate you, I hate you.

Mama always told me about people like you,

The people that would come for the trees,

I just never really thought it would happen to me,

To us,

To all the lives of all the creatures,

To our home. 

And now I’m gonna drink the wrong thing,

Or steal the wrong food,

Or slip and fall on the wrong piece of pavement,

And be crushed. 

Maybe you’ll have the decency to just shoot me,

Maybe for once in your life you’ll do something good,

Slap a bandage over the massacre.

You’ll make it all okay for a moment,

Before it all goes to hell. 

I wish it was you that would die,

You horrible, horrible, man,

Do you know how many you’ve killed?

Or do you try not to think of the number,

Of the corpses,

And the consequences, 

Of your actions.

Rock

By Sophie Howard

Something dropped in my stomach

Like a rock

Like a pebble

Like a stone

Like a Boulder

Something dropped in my stomach 

Like a rock

It happened when I got the bad news

It happened when I yelled at what used to be my friend

It happened when I thought I’d been alone

Something dropped 

And it fell

And fell for a long time

Just drawing it out 

Until it finally hit the bottom

I had hit the bottom 

Boom

Something dropped in my stomach like a rock

Falling Leaves

By Katie Whitner

My headlights streams illuminate wiffleing midnight dancers.

Their music is the sound of friction,

The feeling of a shiver,

The cause of hair to blow across lips.

In the spotlights Ii also see myself.

I see myself plummeting to the ground in a beautiful haphazard way.

I see the tree of what Ii once was from my new perspective on the ground.

I am bare now and removed.

Tiny and alone, decaying 

I watch my body emancipated there in front of me.

Pray this cold season passes.

The spring will come but not before the foggy winter.

‍