“So, it wasn’t long before
The monster and me were tamed again
He needed someone to blame
Because the burden was too heavy for himself
The man in the monster wants freedom
But the monster won’t leave him
There is a war raging between them
I hope the man beats him.”
“I guess it took more than words to bound your wounds
because many didn’t even penetrate the surface
even when I saw you start to crack all I could do was stand back
and i watched the pieces fall i was helpless
I was small”
“but how do you
believe in something that
you don’t know it positively happened?
yes, evidenceblahblahblah,
but I wasn’t there!
(fine, I’m a narcissist.)”
“And that was the first time I was in love- I loved girls and I wanted boys, like the man who died amongst the bleached bone white sands, unable to chose between love and life, and so I starved”
“Grudgingly, Emily printed her name on the paper, wondering for not the first time why her parents had given her a Western name. With her friends, she still stubbornly referred to herself with a Kurdish name.”
“The gibbon boasted a polka-dotted bow tie; his velvety arms stretched outwards to hold a Bible. He was to be the officiator of this holy matrimony.”
“I haven’t slept in days. Last night, I was lying in bed, and I shut my eyes, and I cried. I cried because I miss you. I cried because I need you and because I’m hurting.”
“And if you come in there with fantastic hair, she’ll take one look at you– her fifth grade boyfriend– and dump Charlie right then and there, on his birthday and everything. Because she can’t hide her love for you any longer.”
“It’s like my emotions have just stopped varying and I’m only feeling one way all the time, and I know that’s not human. I could try to fix it, but the problem is I can’t remember why I feel like this in the first place.”
“Was I to run away and let the boys know? What if the beast followed me and found the rest of the boys? I ran, but my little legs only took me so far. I kept going, not wanting to be taken away by this horrid figure.”
“How do you write a poem?
I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing
Do I just keep hitting the return key after every sentence?
Is a line break between two stanzas like a paragraph?”
“I envied Yesterday, who would find the
deepest of slumber for all of tomorrow.”
“They are just so massive and old, they have seen so many years pass. I feel like they watch over me when I’m out in the wilderness. When I look up at the mountains, there always seems to be something more to them, something hidden in those shadowy woods. Something magic.”
“He carries urgent reminders that are easily forgotten. Notes to self that are underlined and circled and highlighted. During class he sits upright, brainstorming a highbrow comment to share while small-talking his peers with a pretense of confidence.”
“Ku Ku is a robot that is armed for fighting and building. He is a funny talker. He used to go to school for robots. He used to be a miner.”
“He is for me,
and I am his.
But he gazes at the wild,
a p a r t from me.”
“October
they say
you say I’m delusional
they tell me I’m obsessed with you
disillusionment”
“Life in the last two years has been normal until now. Today is July 30th, which is my birthday. Today should have been fun and exciting, but instead it was sad. When I woke up, I saw that my medals were missing!”
Her journey would be long
As if a sorcerer, she rose her hands in the air, calling upon the earth
The cold took hold, choking her in the darkness
“Sometimes, we’d just stall for a while. We never wanted to stop talking, but, we’d sometimes run out of things to say. We’d fill our conversations with padding, useless shit. Always keeping our eyes on the clocks, and then the minute it changed from 11:59 to 12 it was over.”
“After Jim won his tenth major tennis tournament, he was so happy that his family rented a black shiny limo for him. When it pulled up, everyone got in. It was only a 40-minute drive into the rural side of New York. They poured him a glass of sparkling water and they were there. Everyone stayed in the limo except him.”
“The sandstorm whipped the man’s eyes from beneath his cowl. His cloak fluttered behind him as he trudged on through the desert. His dark blue cloak stood out in the vast pale wasteland. As he climbed up a sand dune, he noticed a small settlement off in the distance. He then slowly made his way towards the town.”
“In the town of Bassnovia, everyone lived in fear. The town’s workshops and markets were abandoned and everyone stayed inside. Horses were kept in barns with pigs and chickens. Citizens only went out to refill their water jugs or feed the animals. The sky was gray and cloudy; the sun was always hidden by the clouds. No stars shined at night, and the moon only gave off a dim glow. “
“If you have read my previous journal that I proudly finished, you would know that a lot of queer things have happened to me. I probably shouldn’t use queer; it might sound strange because I am queer… I think strange is better. Yes, very, very unfortunate things. My name is Sinclair Foote, and I am more distinguished than most people.”
“Age is no longer a restraint here in Endgame. What matters is your experience. You have to fight to survive around here.”
“I go to Instagram
and tap
the hashtags
#cutting, #depressed and #suicidal
#self-hating #starving #breaking
#fat #ugly #loser #trash”
“My mother named me that because that’s what she thought when she first saw me. Not full and wholesome like a full moon, not dark and serene like a cloudy night when you can’t see a moon at all. A crescent, a little sliver of person, not whole and not nothing.”
“It’s spring break, and we’re in St. Pete Beach, Florida. My family and I are staying at the Don Ce Sar hotel, where my dad went with his dad and brother as a kid. The Don is everything I hoped it would be.”
“Starts up going great,
Then it ends it bein late.
Sittin on the bench thinkin’ about how ima survive this world,
Almost 10 o’ clock”
“I am the voice that kills you.
I am the voice that seeps into your brain and tells you that you’re wrong. Whatever you’re doing
is wrong. You are wrong.”
“The day the world ends is August 8. Our leader told us so. They stood on the balcony overlooking our town and called us to attention.”
“I am a lemon
a fresh new lemon picked from
a tree
but the thing is
I was picked too early
I was picked before my skin turned yellow
before my shell stopped being white”
“I never skip class. I’ve never just not gone to a class. Sure, I’ve taken “sick” days and days where I’ve actually been lying on my couch with a 102 degree fever, but skipping class? Coming in late? Never. Nada. Not happening.”
“The girl with the map face has lived on my block since I moved here twelve years ago. She lives in a small two story house with a small one story tree in the front yard. I’ve never seen anyone else in her house. She must live alone. I wish I lived alone.”
“i’m sorry your tongue started bleeding
when i told you my name, given my hands
tell the same story and my back has the
same stains as a girl whose essence you once
stapled to your ceiling so if there
was an earthquake, she would be above you”
“The pads of fingers kiss and synchronize with gravel tunes
and smooth notes, quick meter
and bounce
snap
baby, do you wanna dance?”
“Bill woke up one morning and noticed he hadn’t quite realized how loudly his knees creaked before. He hadn’t noticed just how cold the hardwood floors got in the winter, hadn’t seen all the dirt on the windows. Had there even been any dirt, before Mae died?”
“I liked how it rolled off my tongue like a fish into water. b-l-u-e. B for brain. L for Leather. U for underneath. And E for earth. everything.”
“They say what don’t kill you will make you stronger. I’m still here, so what does that mean? The hood has a way of engulfing everything in its path and spitting it back up. They say there aren’t many places for young black men like me.”
“My innermost weakness is the song that motivates and guides
the wisdom of the painting dreamer.
The official opportunities
of an endless crimson sky.”
“A Light that conquers the rest
Letting the Puzzle Pieces Really connect into Place
Letting it Fall into the shines of a Better Tomorrow.
Make A Better Tomorrow!”
“Mayor Bloomberg recently prohibited the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces at movie theaters, food carts, and restaurants. Bloomberg has done this due to the rise in obesity. He believes that obesity has been a looming challenge for the nation as a whole, not just because of their health, but economically in paying for the treatments of diseases caused by obesity. Although these statements are true, I think the mayor is going a little too far.”
“There was a boy named Bobby Johnson and he was a kid who always walked to school and a homeless man would ask him for a quarter. The homeless man said to Bobby, “ I know you have a quarter.” Bobby walked off and the homeless man started to follow Bobby.”
“Vlad hated seeing the army. He hated knowing that when they came to his town, something bad was always going to happen. He also hated that every time the army came to town, they were coming for him.”
“…the ones who had been hanging
from street lights and shooting stars,
who asked for help in the form
of loud music, slow dancing,
painting in dark colors, tying
red balloons to doorknobs…”
“Big Apple, Big dreams, Big debts. Big, vacant holes that she just couldn’t fill. Big, whopping tears, then finally, dry eyes in the desert. And now the soothing voice that enveloped her like a warm blanket.”
“Sometimes there are things
we know and do
not understand”
“A tiny voice asked, “Is this the one?” Two small lights were glistening in a clever man’s room.
“I’m sure of it. He’s the one who will defeat Madith, the wizard.” Suddenly a loud boom of thunder sent the glistening lights away into the dark and cold december night.”
The next morning, Wayne was thinking, that was a strange dream, the way I was in a land where magical creatures thrived.
“Tables are overturned, vases are shattered on the floor, and worst of all she has chipped a nail coming home! Niki goes straight up to her vanity room to search for a nail file and some lotion. But just as she had suspected, her makeup has been stolen! “