“The turquoise water shimmered. Small waves flowed onto the black sand of the beach before heading back into the sea. The island positively glowed with sunlight reflecting off the water while palm trees provided shade. It was picturesque, except for the old, wooden mansion that stood tall in the middle of the island.”
“Trees / Be it Children Running in the sun / Or an Old Couple picnicking in the Shade / They Watch”
“Waking up is a shock, a flash to reality I do not desire, a pain put simply. I keep my eyes closed, just like I always do. Blackness is preferable to the greyness of life. And just as it always does, the fan with its choppy hum brings the whisper to my ear. What had once been affection is now a stab from the knife of everyday life.”
“The sunlight hit him like a wave, crashing over his skin, irritating his face. He shielded his eyes from the wave, squinting, and pulled his hood over his head. When he disappeared within the security of that hood, shading his eyes and looking at the ground, the world faded away, smearing into a big blur.”
“Once upon a time, there lived Pactus. He was a cross between a passport and a cactus. He looked like a cactus, except he had a face and arms and blue rectangular wings with passport stamps on them and spikes all over his body. Everyone thought he looked ugly, so he stayed inside his house all the time.”
“I talked in hushed tones with my brother / while we were walking / to get his hair cut / about times we had cried / not salty tears / but umami tears – / substantial and / rich.”
“Cow found a treasure map in the middle of the beach. He was on Waikiki Beach, and he saw something poking out of the ground. Cow went over to see what it was and, to his surprise, it was a treasure map. It had been weathered, and the crinkles made it hard to read.”
“One day, in the Kingdom of Unicorns, a special unicorn was born. He was named Magenta because of his bright pink color. His coat was such a popping neon color, it was almost hard to look at. His parents loved him, but as he grew older, he started to notice how his parents treated him a bit differently than his sister.”
“‘Try the blue button. Maybe that opens up the entrance to the ship, Hoshiko,’ Coco suggested. ‘No, I don’t think so. This might have just been a waste of time. With luck, they may come and find us themselves,’ I replied, sighing. We’d been on the run for three days now, and our faces were undoubtedly plastered across the Collectors’ bulletins.”
“‘Ouch!’ Elizabeth exclaimed as she felt something cold and hard hit her directly on her ankle bone. There was sand in between her toes and salty water up to her shins. She reached down to her ankle to try removing the irritating feeling something was causing.”
“The Polaroid camera sat on display pleading to be used, / It itched to capture the colors of the rising sun. / It longed for a chance to snap the wind”
“I walked past a door and smelled dogs. I could hear them barking. There were three of them, and they wanted to be walked. My job was dog walking, so I rang the doorbell, and an old lady opened the door who looked about eighty years old.”
“It was late. Megan was walking home from after-school activities when she saw a white light coming down from the sky. She thought, That must be a shooting star. I wish for one million dollars, shooting star. Then, she started floating in the air.”
“The sky was downcast the day my mother left. She packed up her things and drove away, leaving Julian, Dad, and I alone together. The day was gloomy enough without the thought that I would probably never see her again. I tried to continue the weekend without breaking down and crying.
“I remember that day. I remember the darkness of the smoke, lifting off from the ground, taking my child from me. He had been taken, at only three years old, to some planet called Earth, forced into a normal life. A life in which he wasn’t my son.”
“When I awoke, the TV was beeping like crazy. All the stations were showing the local news channel. ‘Do not touch the floor,’ they yelled. ‘It will kill!'”
“We fly down the sidewalk, the wheels turning furiously on our scooters. The bags hanging from our handles swing as we turn sharp corners, coming close to knocking us down. ‘First stop, Sweet Green!’ I shout, the wind seemingly making the words trail out behind me.”
“Three minutes before total darkness. Three minutes before a killer’s in my house. Three minutes before the lights go out. ‘And tonight at 9:30 P.M., we will be talking about th-‘ the spokesman stopped talking as I changed the channel to a random TV show.”
“George woke up sweat-drenched and anxious from his slumber. Before he could think, George’s thirst couldn’t be contained, and water was what he desired. Unfortunately for him, this was not possible. His surroundings began explaining themselves: the absence of windows, the tiny lantern serving as the room’s only light source, and worst of all, the rope that tied him to a wooden chair.”
“Ripped jeans on rugged rocks ripping into my skin. I actually took some time to count it one day, when I wasn’t doing anything (I usually am), and there were twenty six. Twenty six old scars and new scrapes. Twenty six days I sat at the corner of a beach no one goes to, waiting for a person who, in theory, doesn’t even exist.”
“In 2006, a rule was implemented that stated that all players picked in the NBA draft must be 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft, and any player, who is not an international player, must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class.”
When I started 6th grade, I thought I was gay because I liked to cross one leg over the other when I sat, and I liked talking about my feelings. Then I started finding girls pretty again and learned how to sit leaning back with my backpack on and my legs splayed out.
“It was a lonely existence. One of many in a huge crowd. He wanted to believe he was special, but he had no proof. He had friends, but they were just convenient. Gossip travels quickly in a small building.”
“For days, I hadn’t been receiving mail… But the flag was finally up! I got mail! I burst out of my front door and opened the mailbox. Inside was a small parcel and a letter attached to it. I opened the letter, anonymously sent…”
“Time wears gloves on its hands. / It tiptoes past us, / Cautious of alerting us to its shadowy presence. / We only notice its movement once it has gone.”
“Popping under my eyelids / Spreading / Hue of bubbles”
“Frustration embodied / By monsters that fly from lips / That have seen many years. / Or, sometimes fairies that don’t fly.”
“The color of kings / Lies in my roots / And flows through the minds / Of all men.”
“I give in. It’s a box of pizza. This thing could last me like half a week. If I have two slices per day, I can make this last for four days! I store the box behind the dumpster along with the rest of my meager possessions. This includes a pair of shorts, for when the weather gets hot, and a jacket, for when the weather gets cold.”
“I am Turd the turtle. I like my strawberry. My daddy turtle says that one day, my strawberry will rot and die. I don’t believe him. I try to hold my strawberry in my mouth, but my mouth is too small. I have to push my strawberry everywhere.”
“This is practically a Sunday routine for me: wake up at 5 in the morning, go to swim practice at 5:30 for two hours, and cook breakfast for my family. Cooking is a joy. It’s an experiment, a piece of art, and a way to show my love.”
“Anger and fear are very similar / they both lead to death / fear: the most powerful spark in history / anger: a flame that burns faster”
“A layer of skin has been peeled away / Revealing what lies beneath me / Secrets exposing themselves / In the burning light”
“I am sure there used to be colors. Back before the end of the world, before nothing mattered. Maybe in pictures, but pictures are blurry and gray and evil and old.”
“One day there was an average potato. That potato liked to play ahhhhhh! It was sort of like catch, but you were the one being thrown. Sometimes, you would get a major concussion or two, but typically, only minor ones. Otherwise, it was pretty scun (scary fun).”
“They say the opposite of love is not hate / It’s just indifference / And because / those who seem to love me / those who really know me enough to love me / seem so few and far between”
“I was picking up all my papers off the school floor like I always did at 3 p.m. That was when my stepsisters would knock them out of my hands. It had kind of become a daily thing. I heard the bus leaving. WAIT! The bus?! Oh no! It came early today. Stepmother’s going to kill me.”
“My name is David Y. Johnson. I own Cogsworth Industries, the largest company in the world, beating Amazon. I know, pretty crazy, right? I have about fifty-six main factories. As the second-richest person in the world, I have to work harder than any other person, but sometimes I can take days off. And there are relationships here and there, but never like this.”
“Open. I was bored. I know high school parties are supposed to be fun and upbeat, especially when you’re a senior, but I couldn’t find myself having fun. I had been to one other high school party when I was a freshman, and I had regretted it as soon as I walked in.”
“She closed her eyes. The world stopped existing. It stopped turning, people stopped breathing, and Allen barely felt like he was there. He didn’t feel himself sobbing and screaming and kicking and begging and running as far, far away as possible from her body.”
“Just because you have a mental / illness, does not mean you are different. / People with anxiety are fighters. People / with depression are survivors. People who / self harm are strong.”
“My palms were sweating. My head was shaking as I walked into the room. I was holding my violin in my hand and my bow in the other. I knew I had to make this perfect. It was my one shot.”
“Somebody promises themselves they will change and reform their ways again, / Yet in the end it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks, yet people still try again and again.”
“Reflecting back on my life experience, I am pleased to say that since my birth, my life has definitely increased in excitement dramatically. While starting out bland as the poor schlub who used to be the infantile Max Abrams, every year, my life has been getting more and more exciting for the most part, an attribute I feel is unique to myself.”
“I listened to the pitter-patter of my footsteps as I ran and ran around the reservoir in Central Park, wishing for the angry string of emotions to disappear. But they wouldn’t. What people could do to you was shocking, and especially when you thought you knew them so well. When you thought they were your friend.”
“The cave was filled with the smoke of a thousand herbs smelling sweet, smoky and savory. Pools of water bubbled on the ground, releasing gouts of steam. Somewhere, water dripped, making echoing, plinking sounds. Mara entered in her white robe, an acolyte of the Oracle. Her hair and face were covered by a light veil.”
“We settled down to dinner. My nani put down the pot of dhal on the wooden dining table. Aayan plopped down in the chair across from me. He looked sweaty, his hair shining in the light for the old chandelier above the table. The room smelled of cumin, cardamom, and smoke.”
“‘The hunt for the Leomates has gotten stronger. Military forces have been searching homes and office buildings,’ said a lady on the television. She had a bright red sweater on. ‘Thank God for this, Susie. The Leomates are a danger to the society, and I do not want them anywhere near me and my family,” said a man in a green shirt, standing next to the lady with the red sweater.'”
“MCARTHUR: Hey, Johnny, are you excited for school? / JOHNNY: It’s gonna be hard, but yeah. It’s a really important year: last year of high school. I feel a good vibe for this year.”
“When you are born, you receive two gifts. / You get a gender, and you get a name. / Most of the time, these gifts are kept. Most of the time, people are content with these gifts. / But sometimes, people don’t like these gifts. They want different gifts. And when they ask for different gifts, they often get the answer that they had hoped would be out of the conversation entirely.”
“It was colder than usual. Nothing was right. The wind blew so hard, the candles on the table went out. The sound of leaves whisking around the house was unbearable. The thump of high-heeled shoes walking across the wooden floor alarmed the girl.”
“I am perfect. I try to tell the world how to live. I know what is right and wrong. I am the perfect child, perfect student, perfect human. I am beautiful, I’ll admit. But don’t worry, I’m modest. I get the best grades, and I’m polite and respectful. People like me, and I like them. People ask me how I am so perfect, and I just shrug and smile my white-toothed smile, all my teeth in perfect alignment.”
“Closely observing my curious behavior is a woman with piercing, green eyes and long, frizzy hair. Her pale hands tap rhythmically on a blank, white notepad. She asks me to share my thoughts even though she knows I won’t.”
“Nur is nothing. Nur is a figment of your imagination. You don’t care about Nur. No one cares about Nur, not even Nur himself. The funny thing about Nur is that he looks like something. He is nothing, but he looks like something.”
“Many of the most successful people in the world are great readers, including Buffet, Gates, Winfrey, and Musk, but success isn’t the only benefit of reading. Reading is also an important habit that is necessary for gaining optimum information.”
“She knew what she had done, and that she was okay. Really, she was just fine. She had always been one to easily persuade herself of opinions she wished to hold.”
“What haunts me most had absolutely no effect on anyone but me. It did not hurt anyone, or change anyone else’s life. But the scene still replays in my head, as though I tore out the heart of my best friend.”
“Pushing is very interesting, if you think about it. It is either hard or easy, or it depends on what you’re pushing. If you happen to be a stronger person, then what you’re pushing seems lighter when it isn’t. Or maybe it isn’t the pushing that’s interesting.”
“Charles Wallace was as surprised as anyone when a great, shining, white horse knocked at the door just as the evening bell rang to send the children to their beds. The headmaster stood up immediately, an all-too-familiar look of irritation on his face.”
“As they sat up, they became more aware of their surroundings. The stone bridge they were sitting on wasn’t stone at all.”
“Cecily hated the color yellow. Everyone knew that. Well, she hoped they knew, but she was always wrong about that. Sadly, the paint in her eyes that slowly started seeping into her mouth was yellow.”
“I know it’s you, / I can always tell, / when you show up at my door, / and lean on the bell.”
“There was a cute llama named Achoo. / He lived in the glorious Peru.”
“The blue / sky shows your heart, / Shows you how to sing, / Lets you speak, / Teaches you to think, / Helps you be you.”
“I didn’t really understand what it was. I was little, but one thing that I knew I wanted was to be close to the sun. I wanted to touch it because I felt some strange connection to it. It’s like the sun was calling my name over and over.”
“When he was alone outside and had nothing to do, Charles often thought about the strange coincidence that revolved around his birthday.”
“My name is River. My mother named me. Throughout my fifth year, I have traveled across what felt like the world. I used to live by the ocean in a tribe called Mist. Since the time I was adopted to Amethyst by Mrs. Moonstone, I felt like a part of something.”
“My breath leaves clouds on the small window, / Dissipating to reveal fluffy clouds outside, / The wing of the airplane in which I sit.”
“In 1977, Robert Black walked up a steep driveway and into his one-level house in rural Virginia, expecting to see his mother in the kitchen. Instead, he saw an overturned pair of electric beaters, still dripping with cake mix, sitting on the counter. He called for his mom and received no reply. Suddenly, he understood what had happened.”
“Oh, kids these days. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. Always on their God-forsaken phones and what-not. They’ve got no respect whatsoever. When I was a young chap growing up, we didn’t have phones.”
“I woke up today to the usual chorus of whining dogs on the farm. I arose from my small bed and looked over to the clock. 5:27 AM, it read. Mama and Baba would still be asleep. Time to start the morning chores.”
“The nation was in shambles, rocked by conflict and corruption. The Republican Party had been in control of the White House for two decades, and their rule had seen America descend into turmoil. The 2034 election of Louis Moor was hardly a victory for the Republicans, whose use of voter suppression outraged the nation, leading to the three day “Red November” riots that wreaked havoc on the Capitol.”
“I think my biggest fear is creating something of little worth. More than that, creating something that floats around aimlessly in space on its own, not meaning anything to anyone. No one would be paying attention to it. No one would be bothering to even glimpse at it.”
“She was alone. She told herself she wasn’t, that she knew her purpose, that she knew how her story was to unfold. But the truth was, she didn’t.”
“I drop down and cry. Luther holds me tight, his cold, ghostly arms against mine.”
“Long, long ago, the beings of planet G-23 did not know the art of war. But the future, with its winged ships and armored spacesuits, dragged them out of their peaceful stasis. Ava Maria saw the first encounter from the port window of her room, her twelve-year-old human fingers against the reinforced glass.”
“The Tyrian purple carpets of Dr. Howard’s waiting room gave the whole room a medieval feel, like I was waiting within the walls of a castle. Even with the navy blue carpeting in the outside that felt as modern as it could be. It’s funny how once you’re severed from the rest of a building, the entire aesthetic can change. Just like how this room looked like a place suited for royalty, but it felt like some sort of dungeon.”
“One day, when I was practicing making a sculpture out of wood, Momma Pig came into the living room saying she had an announcement. She said that she wanted me and my two brothers to move out of her house and live in our own home. Surprised by this announcement, I was excited to make my very own home.”
“It had been about two hours of driving. At least I thought so. The radio blasting 93.5 at volume 10. Samantha hummed the music. I glanced at the rear view mirror that welcomed me to a rainy evening in fall.”
“The building had a gothic feel to it. The windows had black soot stains from years of enduring rain and neglect. The whole place was a dreary sight, not to say that all gothic buildings were dreary. In my book, gothic buildings were the best types of buildings, compared to the square ones that looked like a four-year-old’s Lego experiment.”
“Mary went upstairs later that night to check on Jamie. She knocked on his door quietly. ‘Jamie… are you there? It’s Mommy.’ Mary jiggled the handle and the door was locked.There was no sound. ‘Jamie… I’m sorry I yelled at you earlier.’ Still, no reply came.”
“I see you all. All the different people. Running around like ants in a farm that has been shaken too hard. You get angry at the little things—your coffee when the barista gets the order wrong, the weather because it always seems to be raining, and the jammed printer in the back of the office that never seems to work. I see you. But you don’t always see me.”
“Earbuds vibrating inside my head / A barrier from those who leave me dead / They park their hearse outside my weary skull / Emotions bubble but my face remains dull”
“You watched your grandfather die. / I believe you were 7 years old at the time / But the strangest thing was even though he wasn’t blind / he refused to acknowledge your face.”
“I got it / Even though it’s been years since the last time / I shot it”
“The days are getting longer. The nights, an eternity. Have you ever noticed how slowly the sun moves? I have, I’ve watched it. For 12 hours. Sunset to sunrise.”
“He was biding his time until dusk, trying to keep his mind focused and clear, yet nagging thoughts still clouded the corners of his mind. They were all jammed up by the very thing that instinctively wanted to liberate them: his mouth. He channeled his words through his inventions, letting them speak for themselves. But this was important. He could not let any other event distract him from his precisely planned schedule.”
“I swear I’m not that bad of a liar. I have to do it quite often. My mom sat me and my sister down at the dining room table as though we had killed someone.”
“I had five minutes to defuse a bomb that would destroy everything. It was located in the left wing of a hospital, but I didn’t have any other information. I was not given a defusal kit. I was only given the resources around me, but they would do just fine.”
“I was over at my house when it started. It was something that I’m sure nobody in the entire world was expecting. Nothing, not nukes, not machine guns, nothing could stop this.”
“It was April tenth. A normal day. It all started at breakfast. I had just woken up, and my family was still asleep. I was eating pancakes. They were very good pancakes (especially considering that I made them) and just as I was reaching for more, my arm moved, and I knocked over my glass of milk.”
“I stole his shotgun once–he seemed very annoyed–but he eventually got it back from me. Maybe he wanted revenge and decided to try to kill me. How he managed to ram into us and completely destroy our ship, I will never know.”
“I watch the little spots of color / Dance around the night air / Like lightning bugs / Twirling into the night sky / And disappearing from sight.”
“life is soft and serene when you let her / when you wake up too early and you sit in the living room / the sun hits you and you hear ocean waves”
“Poor Alexandra laid sick from the cold, for today was the second day of winter, and she was unprepared. It wasn’t that she lost her winter coat or anything like that. Alexandra intentionally left it. She had escaped her sanctuary during the winter solstice and didn’t bring her coat. But her lack of warmth was not the main issue (her race was known for having a small resistance to the cold), it was the amount of damage done to her body that showed.”
“You just bought the new iPhone 7. Super wow. Maybe you should rethink your choice. The iPhone 7 might look really cool, but it’s missing things and has many flaws.”
“Once there was a sun and moon / The sun circled the moon, like a dog racing to catch its tale / They were Unified / Stronger together / The light and the moon / The same / But separate”
“Pierre Gusteau was a different child. Not in a bad way. He always wanted a legacy. Everyone wants a legacy. Everyone wants to be remembered. But Pierre. Pierre lived for a legacy.”
“The castle had remnants of grandeur, of beauty long forgotten, now hanging in rubble and ruins over the cliff of the violently churning sea. Perhaps once it had been glorious, but now it lay in tatters, much like the man who claimed residency there.”
“Yellow is the bright color of sunflowers and sunsets / Then the sun goes down and the sunflowers are forgotten”
“A doctor in white scrubs progressed among the tanks. He took a look at the cardiographs for each patient and saw that they were running steadily. Beep, beep, beep, beep. He saw a nurse and said, ‘Are the new ones ready for inspection?'”
“After having done the same commute for more than half a year, you start to see some patterns. There are certain people I see every Tuesday going to the shuttle at Times Square, or that man who walks really slowly on the stairs at 36 Avenue on Wednesdays. Of course I don’t know any of these people’s names, but I can guess.”
“I remember her cheekbones / twirl / smile / grace / eyes / But I remember her pain / I remember her laughter / But that was before”
“I woke up with a deep, solemn feeling. Opening the drapes to see the gray sky didn’t help my spirit, nor did it help that it was a Sunday. I put on my slippers with a slow creak of the floorboards, each screech giving off a sound of desperation. As if someone were calling for help on a depressing day. If only I could make that sound.”
“Take a breath. Foot up foot forward foot down. Take a breath. Then you’re at the top but uh oh you fell down.”
“President Obama put a hand over his head and sighed. ‘It is done.’ He repeated this over and over in a whisper, ‘It is done. It is done. It is done. My God. It’s done.’ He ran out of the room, taking the stairs at a run. The Marine sentries nodded as he ran out of the West Wing lobby, toward Marine One. “
“I was carried uncomfortably for a while into a loud area. Then a train, which I have seen in Gumville before, came roaring in. On the train, he opened up the pack and grabbed my parents. I screamed, ‘No!’ but of course only my cousins could hear me.”
“Simon had stopped listening a while ago, but there was no point in ruining Jessica’s perfect Valentine’s Day. Simon was less interested in the painfully boring play-by-play commentary on his girlfriend’s day and more interested in a pink sock lying in the middle of a patch of grass.”
At 13:33 PM, a plane falls out of the sky at high speeds, causing severe injuries. United States – New York – Queens -JFK. 13:22 PM – Delta Airlines Flight 19 is almost finished boarding 324 people. 287 of those are passengers on a flight en route from New York, JFK Airport, to Honolulu, Hawaii. The estimated flight time is about 13 hours and 32 minutes.
“When I was eleven and younger, my mom and dad were always the “parents” in my life. They were always telling me what to do and frustrating me. So, when I decided it was time for me to become a young lady, I wanted respect from my parents, as well as my siblings.”
“Recess is as important as education. Recess isn’t only good for your health, but it’s also good for your mood. When you wake up in the morning, you usually think about school, but that shouldn’t be the case, should it?”
“All I knew was that it was a job and that I was looking for a job. When I saw the ad in the newspaper, all it said was: ‘Tutor needed for the son of Mr. and Mrs Ordake.’ They were paying a lot of money.”
“The elk stood together. The forest around them was covered in a thick blanket of snow. One doe stood away from the rest of the herd. Her coat was wet from the snow collecting on her back. The breath of the elk gave the area the illusion of smoke rising. The crack of a branch sent all ears facing the old oak that had given up one of its limbs.”
“An audible click floated from the front doorknob; Julius grunted as he heaved a large bicycle, with fading yellow paint, through an inconveniently sized open doorway. After tossing the hunk of transportation to the side — making a crashing noise against the nearby wall; then it landed on top of his shoes — he carelessly shuffled through a pile of envelopes he had found in the lobby’s mailbox.”
“Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Ti– That was his watch’s final breath. Later… Charlie froze. Something was off. Everything around him was slowing down.”
“Only six more months working at this hell-hole, then I’ll have enough money… And people won’t suspect what I am as much一I mean, who names a shop Witchcraft Bakery when witches are treated the way they are?”
“The new hit first-person shooter (FPS) game, “Overwatch,” by Blizzard Studios, is not your ordinary shooter game. This is why it’s breaking game stores all over the world. The Blizzard workers are some of the most popular in the gaming industry, and all of their ideas are always highly anticipated.”
“Pokemon GO should be banned because the game is addictive to an extent, where it takes away lives. Pokemon GO should be banned because of the problems it imposes on our society and others around the world. Additionally, this fun game can be problematic for those who are not directly involved with the game.”
“In that moment, only little details matter. Her phone is dead. She ought to know why, but her friends have those answers. Her sneakers feel soggy, and water is seeping in through her socks, despite the fact that there is no rain. She could’ve stepped in something wet, but she really can’t remember. It’s as if she has just been born. Or reborn.”
“That was the sucky thing about going to a school for Gifted and Talented Young Scholars. You know, other than the mounds of homework and that one persistent nerd who always asked if he could have harder tests. (It wasn’t nurturing the brain or whatever other bullshit he had in his head.) GTS, the high school that Katherine Webb, “genius” sophomore, attended was approximately twenty-five subway stops from the obscure area of Queens, where she lived.”
“A girl disguised by the somber mists of taunting loss, / Glooming shadows escaping the night’s bitter sky, / The latent stars vanished without gloss, / Wishes muted by a concealed lie.”
“I wake up. The island is empty, and yet a low rumbling begins. It startles me, waking me up from my deep sleep. Everyone else is gone, vanished into the winds. Chills run down my spine, and I tense, my instincts warning me that something is not right on this island.”
“A carbon atom must only have a specific number of protons / A strand of DNA writes novels of identity out of our control / A swipe of scarlet nail lacquer applied without a proper top coat will flake away in a matter of days”
“The first thing I register in the morning is my head. It’s pounding like the bass line of an AC/DC song. My throat is parched. The next thing I realize is that I’m not alone. My arm is wrapped around a female, her hair spreading over the pillow case.”
“Tighten / And ripple / And ache / And redden.”
“A pet provides comfort, love, humor, responsibility, and an adorable face. A pet will be there when you are sad, and any pet, from a fish to a cow, can be all out hilarious. So, in your life, should you get a pet?”
Everyday resembles a blank canvas, / Any color can accommodate the dull lines, / Our dreams arrange like butterflies in the rain, / Pattering down in rattled drops as the sun beams beyond them.
“he’s always been good, / at throwing punches that land / in the shapes of bruises / on sandbags and plastic / play-pretend armor.”
“Monday is the lowest of the low. It’s at the bottom of my trash can of hate, along with fake smiles and the objectification of women.”
“It happens quite often that I feel my thoughts start to disseminate like continental drift.
It happens also that I feel like I am biting into a chunk of solid butter.
Sometimes, though, it is melted butter, and sometimes, the butter is whipped.”
“She thought her life was like The Truman Show. Ever since that movie was released last year, she had watched it eighty-seven times. It was her favorite movie ever! It was because she related to Truman so much. He was stuck in a boring town that wouldn’t let him leave. Except she was being kicked out.”
“The walk that Merlin began outside was anything but easy. The grass almost reached his torso. He shivered, not used to the feeling of mud and water, and even some bugs on his bare toes. He didn’t think to get his shoes. He was just wondering what the heck happened to his so normal town.”
“There is water in the air bubbles that pop when I crack my knuckles. I am in a tank of water. The water tank is full of floating honeysuckles.”
“orange is my least favorite color.
orange isn’t a peaceful birth, it’s a painful one.
orange is your mother screaming in labor.”
“i actually kind of like the park
it’s just that once my mother lost me and i’m still afraid of dirt paths and trees that look like faces in the dark”
“the friday light shines in his eyes,
iridescent and ethereal”
“It is no coincidence that you were able to find me. Few can hear my voice, and the ones who could were unable to find me. I have been here for thousands of years, and you are the person I was waiting for. You are the only person that can stop the destruction of the world.”
“For thirteen years, John had had only his clients to talk to, and occasionally the police, but not for long, because it was boring to talk to dead people.”
“Most citizens believed the one
And started to despise
The ones chosen to hate upon
Fed with fear and lies”
“You looked at me, frustration exploding like fireworks all over your face
You couldn’t communicate your feelings to me”
“I’m right in front of you
I am a rare bird who’s there but not seen often
My gold feather with multiple colors of feathers”
“As the bus slowly drove away, I leaned back, resting my head near the frosty window. My eyes gazed, noticing a father and his daughter crossing the street. I watched as they giggled, their umbrellas dancing behind them. They slowly disappeared. I looked away, my hands fumbling as I cleared the lump in my throat.”
“The pale, waning moon is wearing a frightening mask.
We have the love of a thousand seas.”
“The queen died last night. The colony is in a fervor. They look lost. Each wanders the tunnels they made, like aliens. The dirt and glass, that used to wrap them in warmth and keep them safe, now feel like a maze with no end or prize for solving. They don’t eat or sleep.”
“One time, I said, ‘I’m the best at soccer in this class.’ I was the only girl in my class who played soccer. That gave me an opportunity to show off in front of the other boys. I only said that so that I would have more confidence when I played, but it really didn’t help.”
“You were drinking champagne from a wine glass
The wine glass had a red lipstick stain on the side
I knew from the red ruby color you had given up”
“Five hours ago, my mother walked up to me and dropped a bomb. Right there, in the living room. People shouldn’t be allowed to do that.”
“George spent a while trying to come up with an excuse for why he needed help, but he didn’t need to, for although he always pretended he understood computers, Charlotte had always known he really didn’t.”
“It’s sad that there are a lot of evil people trying to harm innocent, kind people like me. I mean, a community worker doesn’t deserve the devil, right? I remembered that hideous girl with the warts and excess makeup. Was I evil in her eyes when I harshly rejected her? Was she feeling what I’m going through right now? How did she recover from it? For the first time, I wondered if there truly was someone that is a perfect match for me.”
“The real question in this topic is, which side did the Great Compromise of 1850 truly benefit more, the north or the south?”
“Hold on a second, he thought. Why can’t they leave?
If they leave, he thought, I’ll never get another one of these letters! No letter means no work!”
“Fisher woke up to tentative and inconsistent guitar playing coming from his sister’s room.”
“If only I could… just… find a way… to… escape. My thoughts were getting mixed up, and my vision was getting foggy. Was it my imagination, or did the room get smaller? Was it my imagination, or did I hear… footsteps, the swish of fabric?”
“My social studies teacher is crazy and my Spanish teacher makes us sing songs with a bird called Pepito. So, there’s already a lot to overcome this year, but I feel I will need to overcome worse things.”
“Instead of a visitor, Johnathon found a box lying on his very clean poch. It was around the size of his head, with blue and yellow string sitting in a bow on top. “How odd…” He thought out loud. Johnathon had not ordered a package.”
“A piece of me is gone, severing the soul that is truly me
It’s like I’m a stranger to myself”
“Rows of empty, dust-covered pews line the church behind him, in front of him stands only the altar.”
“How could nuclear fusion affect the world? The enormous idea and concept of nuclear fusion can change the world in ways both large and small.”
“Once I hit the water, I could feel the cold, dark blue engulf my body. A small shiver went down my spine. As I looked around I could see that there were a lot of people in the water wounded and grieving over the ones they have lost.”
“Allowing a feral child to be abused, neglected, and depressed. Making them unable to decide their own destiny. These are cruelties that should be abhorred.”
“I grew up reading princess stories, just like every other little girl in America. There seems to be no problem, but there is. American princesses are the classic “white” beauty queen: tall, fair skin, big blue eyes, blonde hair, long eyelashes, etc. Every little girl in America grows up learning and trying to live up to the “white” definition of beauty. I was one of them.”
“You have read multiple books by brown people about brown people that made you feel as though the authors didn’t really know what it meant to be brown. Still, you continue to read these books because they inspire the writer in you.”
“When they got back to the park they sat down near the rose bushes. The roses were ruby red like the color that comes up in Rose’s eyes when she takes a picture.”
“As I walk through the icy winter morning, I think again about my mom and her successful Broadway career. She was so famous. She starred in so many plays that they all get blurred together in my head sometimes. I saw almost every single one of them, each one unique from the previous. I wish that I could see one more.”
“Just listening to the song gave me an interesting feeling. I remembered loving it with a burning passion, but now, I noticed so many flaws in it, and the only thing I could make of it was a cheesy, burned out fan-bait.”
“I had the ability that no one else had — winning seemed so easy. Yet, it all fell out of my hands because of my rage.”
“I don’t hate Jews.
I am going to keep this guilt
inside of me
forever.”
“It’s a little bit on the cold side, but it’s August, and in a month summer will be over and gone. I’m not ready for summer to end yet. I still want to go to the pool and learn how to do a dive off the diving board. I still want to experiment with our new ice cream machine and learn how to make mint chocolate ice cream that doesn’t taste like toothpaste.”
“L dropped his phone on the floor. The whole reason he had not ran out of the city in the morning was that he was sure he would get advice and maybe money from his friend. Before he could decide what to do, someone tapped him on the shoulder. “
“Summer was the queen, so she made all the decisions for who played what role. She told Lucinda she couldn’t be a princess or anyone in the royal family, but she could be a rock if she really wanted to. Lucinda was extremely aggravated by this, and she drew with markers all over Summer and Summer’s cubby. Then, when the teachers came Lucinda pretended Summer did it. That was the beginning of their enmity.”
“Leto sighed, and got out of the car. Why was she always the one who had to do everything? Why didn’t her mom do it herself, or ask her brother sometimes?”
“I am awoken not more than 265 hours later to breaking news: the President has committed suicide. The sound of an eerie alarm goes off in the distance. Mounds of rioters are seen starting fires in the distance.”
“Tommy looked down to the factory floor again. He saw the brewers brewing, the taxi drivers on standby for any minor deals, and the security on guard for any threat to their operation. For once, Nick had a good idea. Looks like it’s about to pay off.”
“A picture pops up of a middle-aged man, walking out of the school towards a police car, his arms being held together by handcuffs. The man’s hair is short and black, slicked back by sweat. His skin is russet brown.
So if it isn’t my father, who is it?
I gasp. I know who it was.”
“Magic is everywhere. People perform magic for huge crowds and just their family. Both rich and poor are welcome to the world of magic.”
“Suddenly, I hear a loud grunt, and I realize that the fight has started. The centaur is sprinting in Hunter’s direction, weapon first. But Hunter pulls out his sword and holds him off, the metal glinting in the sunlight as their weapons meet.”
“She’s sizzling, dazzling, snappy, and can put on a damn good show.
She can be impolite, rude, snobby, and horrible, but only when in need of enlightenment. “
“Chewing my cuticles when you laughed at something the girl with the sunset hair said to you
Swallowing the cloud in my throat as I practiced asking you if we would still meet every Friday to watch the stars
Realizing, when the fog cleared, I would never ask”
“when I’m in a pool, you’re fun.
Ohh sun, hot sun, you’re a ton.”
“People rarely drove all the way down the cul-de-sac. Some were unaware that the house at 31 Kings Point even existed, except for one man driving along the boundless, newly-paved road at a quarter to midnight. His slick white Volkswagen avoided all streetlamps and the breathtaking crescent moon hanging low in the late night sky. He parked his car just before 29 Kings Point, attempting to avoid the eyes of suspicious strangers.”
“When I was three, my dad took me to the doctor after I had been complaining about a sore knee for about four months. My parents thought it was just a soccer injury, so they didn’t take me in to get it checked out right away. Of course, even if it was just a soccer injury, it probably wouldn’t have hurt to take me in anyways. But no, it was not a soccer injury, it was not a hockey injury, it was something worse. Way worse.”
“There are some things that people who never do theater don’t understand, like the excitement and nerves of opening night. They don’t understand how many times you have to make up the words as you’ve gone along because you’ve forgotten them. The bond you all develop at the last few rehearsals. The anticipation during the director’s speech. Trying to stay quiet backstage, but ending up laughing at least once.”
“Nix and I walk deeper into the forest, as if we weren’t in far enough. Ugh, I bet this is about the corn. Nix gets very defensive about his farmer’s crops. Why? I don’t really know.”
‘“Water is the source most needed in this desert,” said Ama. “People would kill for it. Our forefathers were torn apart by it. That’s why there are gangs. Jym’s gang is evil. They won’t stop until they have control over all the gangs in the desert. And now they have all the weapons they want. If they have control over the oasis, they will be able to control all the gangs, even ours.”’
“Burn against our wishes,
And our hopes of productivity
Are crushed by your insensitivity”
“A sparrow whips by my head, distracting me for a second. I watch the brown blur whiz through the air, loop-the-looping until he tightens his wings and drops down to earth in a breathtaking dive. Just before he hits the leafy canopy below, he opens his wings and soars. He’s mocking us, I know, so I ignore him and stare down at the scenery below.”
‘”Josh, you’re special. It doesn’t matter if no one likes you, you’re just… special.”
Josh smiled as she slowly faded away. His last word to her was, “Thanks.”’
“After the events of dinner with my father, I decided I needed to immerse myself in the league. I started having more in-depth conversations with fellow members and writing my feelings in a small notebook I bought from Papyrus. I wrote down my frustration with my father and his lack of empathy. As I continued writing, it turned into poetry.”
“His voice sounded angry, but delicate at the same time. Like he just found out a shocking secret that he wasn’t suppose to know. Brad, my dad’s best friend slash colleague. Why would he call me on my dad’s phone asking for my mom?”
“She didn’t open her eyes or anything, not even when we dropped her body into the nearby lake and pulled her back up, but something crazy happened.
My sister’s blonde hair turned cerulean blue, and her closed eyes opened to show that her brown irises were now ice blue. Even her naturally tanned skin turned extremely pale, pale enough to rival a vampire’s.”
‘“It is rare for a hero or king to die in battle in the last life. I welcome you to my halls. You will be able to see into the mortal world, so your son will always have a guiding light,” responded Frond. “You will also fight alongside the gods and heros of this realm. We shall combat the gods of evil and monsters in glorious battle. This life is better than the last.”’
“the sweater is one of ripped holes and seams,
and I watch the soft, tawny sunlight grace your neck
to assure that I or the universe did not simply dream you into being”
“Thoughts swirled around his head. Hudson felt trapped. He began to think about being in a world on his own with nobody around him. He tried to distract himself from the message by grabbing his notes, but he could not think straight. He picked up the phone, but realized he had no other friends to talk to because his only friends were in his mind. Hudson ran to his bed and put his face into the pillow and cried. He knew it was time to make real friends and to start growing up.”
“I don’t know what I want from Tara now. I don’t know what she could possibly give me, after betraying me like that. After not telling me — her girlfriend of almost a year — that she was married.”
“Pale yellows dancing with the boldest
Swipes of tangerine on a sun-drenched canvas
Sway their heavy heads”
“This, Tedd realized, was her chance to write her parents’ stories. Tedd lunged for the nearest computer, barely beating two of her classmates to it. Ignoring their groans as every other computer was taken, Tedd began to write about her father’s career as a journalist, writing the story of his story about the presidential campaign, how he had traveled halfway across the country to not only speak with the presidential candidates, but also the delegates of swing states and a third-party, and had successfully predicted the outcome of the election, a feat which not many had been able to accomplish.”
“Narcotic smoke now filled the room, and soon he would see visions induced by the herbs of gods and kings of yore. With a deep breath, he set the incense and descended into the world of mind-altering.”
“The breeze lifts my hair to the sky,
to the sun,
to the curve of my right ear.”
“‘You were staring off into space for twenty eight hours, thirty-nine minutes, and seven seconds,’ stated the cat smugly. It licked its furry paw and cleaned its head with it. It seemed not to care whether or not the boy was goggling at it.”
“Hannah wasn’t sure what she expected the first time she saw it. It seemed out of place in the dark alley with just one other shop, an old newsstand that only sold moldy chips and cheap soda. The sun seemed to shine only on the bookstore, lighting up the street with an otherworldly light.”
“I was just speechless. I’d seen a lot of TV where people would get down on their knees and scream, “Noooooooo!!!” when something as tragic as this happened, but I didn’t feel like that was the appropriate response.”
” I peer behind the curtains to make sure that there are no hot pink hearses in the parking lot. When I do, I find multiple hot pink hearses, which means I am being followed. I don’t know by whom or why, but I know that my life’s in danger.”
“The landscape around him was scorched and burned. Fires raged everywhere, buildings were decimated, steel destroyed. There was no sign of life anywhere.”
“It was a lovely time. Haughty parties with the best orchestras, delicacies from every corner of the world, dapper suits with a ridiculous amount of accessories, fancy dresses with at least ten petticoats. She had a lovely life.”
“Didn’t they have common sense? When someone is choking, you get them water! You don’t just leave them there to choke and get sent to the hospital because they’ve been coughing for so long!”
‘But, he gives a sigh of relief to see that there was no sign of a dog in the tracks so he goes to the closest stranger, a man in a black business suit and asks, “Sorry to interrupt, sir, but my dog chewed through his leash not to long ago. Did you happen to see him?”’
“The boys were slightly disappointed that there was no breakfast, but they were more worried, where was their mom?”
“Where is the soul? How can it be found? What if… it isn’t there?”
A young boy, skipping down the path. The breeze ruffled his dark hair, causing it to pull away from his face long enough to reveal eyes wide and glittering with joy. “Look, Skyler!” The boy, so small he barely reached his sister’s knees, twisted about so he could find her. “Look-”
“Strawberry frosted donuts with rainbow sprinkles on top, eaten before going to the train store. Watching toy trains rush by on wooden tracks, licking the frosting from my fingers.”
“Cleanliness is nonexistent.
The rush of the system takes over.
Dirt and love coexisting.
Flying through tunnels and darkness.”
“The water receives her.
every day her heart is open to the sound of waves.
always the same sound, the same deafening sound.”
“It was a bright and sunny afternoon. Suddenly, thunderstorms brewed. It was not the weather; it was the mood in the Williams’ house. A big fight between Lucy William’s parents caused dark, gray clouds to hover over the house. It ominously ended with her father slamming the door to their house.”
“Piper McCarthy blinked the morning grogginess away, then rocketed out of bed. ‘Birthday! Thirteen! Special!’ were the first thoughts to zoom through her head. Standing in front of the mirror, she checked herself. Her frizzy, brown hair was as messy as ever, and her storm-gray eyes were exactly the same as they’d been since she was born.”
“Ew, no! Like, I love Brit, but this is an issue that needs to be addressed. If he has a beer belly at sixteen, then it’s a no-go.”
“‘Aren’t they mad though, after the last fight?’ I asked, looking out into the desert of Hell. The sky was a bloody smear across the red landscape. No demons marched over the horizon, brandishing swords. There was only the barren wasteland and the burning sun.”
“Life lost love hidden I lost it all in one sittin’
so I grabbed a pen and pad and started spittin’
I’m more than a conqueror so there’s no quittin’”
“Listen, baby girl, I am sorry for doing that to my sister, and I told her I was sorry. I was on heavy drugs, but now I am a clean person. I have been sober for twenty-three years. I am hard on you because I don’t want you to end up like me.”
“Today Is A Good Day, But Tomorrow Is Unknown,
The Past Already Happened. That’s Why I Left It Alone.”
“Love reminds me of a shirt I made for my sister,
sweet candy yams.
Love is my sister at Coney Island at night”
“a name
is your most personal possession,
identifying you.”
“Through foggy glass, Ilse can see the station sign on a bar on the platform: Berlin Friedrichstraße. This will be her last look at this station — her last look at Germany, her home — for quite a while.”
“Front, back. Forward, backward. Those were the only thoughts going through my head as I pushed off each wall and drifted towards another one. I moved my arms and legs to avoid the obstacles in my room: my glass, my pillow, my desk, and a case full of metal fingers.”
“Long ago, when mankind was still young, it was hunt or die.”
“My classmates are filing out of the front doors of the school, while the bell I dread every day rings, and I sit on the sunbaked front steps. None of them acknowledge me. They are rushing out of school to summers filled with friendship and freedom while I dread the car that comes to pick me up and deliver me to another two hours of emptying my brain to professionals of everything they consider ‘toxic.'”
“Her yellow nightdress looked as though a young woman may have worn it in the fifties, but now, it was a thing too used for this world. Her face was so deflated that her cheeks resembled nothing but shadowed caverns and her eyes were so wild and wide, that they were more white than brown.
But the rich, chestnut brown they held was beautiful— beautiful like warm brownies on a snowy afternoon; truly, stunningly beautiful.”
“The pagans were a small, exclusive gang of kids that hung out on the outskirts of the school campus, behind the clumps of trees surrounding the parking lot. There were all sorts of sick rumors about them, like that one of the girls had set fire to the music room a few years back by just summoning a flame into her hand or some shit, or that the guys in the group had turned the pool water into beer.”
“I hate going to the beach! All I want to do this summer is hang out with my friends, play video games on my laptop, and watch TV! But do my parents care? NO!! They just come up to me and say, ‘Jenny, even though we know you hate the beach, we are going there today because we want to torture you.'”
“‘That girl has been missing for seven years, Jordan,’ the Chief Officer sighs, removing his glasses and setting down the notes I’d written on his desk. ‘There’s no way you could’ve found her.'”
“In this world, anti-heroes think that they are in charge because they believe they obtain both light and dark energy. This world is loaded with cities, towns, and villages just like on Earth. Eighty-nine percent of people in the world have powers or can obtain powers; the rest are humans.”
“From the Earth to simply explore,
We always want peace, but never want war.
3009 is the year that we chose,
But the year we come back, nobody knows.”
“Hope is a test
A test you have not studied for
A test you cannot study for
A test you will fail”
“As the clock winds down, Jake’s teammates look up at the scoreboard with anticipation. Leading the Wolves by two points with just thirty-eight seconds to go, Jake and the Sharks are looking to seal the win. Jake passes to Chris who looks for a way to get to the basket. Just one bucket would be enough for the Sharks to win tonight.”
“Some people have courage
I do not always think I had it
But now I know I did”
“I wasn’t shy at all. I just didn’t think the questions were worth answering. The teachers didn’t realize that. I have a lot of friends. Every single one of them tells people they know me inside and out. My soul isn’t inside out. It’s hidden. Only I can find it.”
“Darkness. That was all Zephyr felt. It was one of the rare times when he had gotten scared. His arms and legs turned cold. Beads of sweat formed on his temples. He started to hyperventilate. He had no idea where he was, what he was doing, or even what time period he was in. He could not remember his past and wanted answers desperately.”
“I searched her blank eyes for any sign of comfort. She told me that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, where Aiko lives. Bombed the little island. I knew what she would say after that.”
“White is a color that shines like the moon.
White is a color that breaks through the gloom.”
“There was a jar
filled with Ring Pops
that she would always
pull out for me.”
“The stream
looped around
the yard near the fence,
and I begged her to
put a bridge in so
I could cross it.”
“Crystal, white, sugar-light,
how beautiful is the snow?”
“Adam took a step forward and tripped on a rock. He picked up the rock and threw it forward. It landed on a bumpy spot on the land and Adam heard beeping. Instinctively, he dove into the crater. Soon after the beeping was the sound of a deafening explosion.”
“Drinking, dancing, and laughing — until I woke up the next morning on a stranger’s tan, smoky couch. And Graham was gone. I scoured the whole house looking for him, the backyard, the attic, everything. My emotions ran from confused, to annoyed, to worried, to panicked, to… gone.”
“It starts small
a thin line
maybe
maybe”
“Jessica and I were talking and laughing on our way home from school when I decided to tell her my news.
‘Hey, have you heard about the cross-country team tryouts? This is my only chance to prove to Coach that I’m capable of running.'”
“His fingers wrap /
around her neck. /
This necklace is /
the present no one /
asked for.”
“I watch as she sleeps.
Easy, is the word
that comes to mind.”
“But there is something really serious. These people at Sea World are torturing the poor whales. Its terrible! I, er, might of followed these evil guys into a room where I overheard them planning to train the poor whale.”
“Detective Sharp said, ‘We should make a team name.’
The Inventor asked, ‘What should we name it?’
“Dr. Dupont said, ‘Well, we are all people of the world, we are a class, then we are obviously heroes. We should call ourselves the World Class Heroes.'”
“I quickly learned that things don’t happen because you’re hungry, or sad, or dirty. You have to earn it. I was only eleven when I learned that lesson. I was eleven when I left.”
“’I just really miss my old school, and my best friend Katherine, and some other friends as well,’ I say, more to myself than Auburn.
‘Ooh, who’s the boy you left?’ Auburn says with a tease in her voice.
I turn my head to hide my blush, only to find Sky staring at me closely as soon as I say, ‘His name was Jason. We were starting to get serious, but then I had to leave. He was my only boyfriend I really cared about.'”
“I was erasing the world, and relied only on myself. That was how I got through, stayed sane, kept going.”
“To mend the sore bone that kept her from flying, that kept them all from soaring. The quiet community off of Route 9, their refugee camp. Broken Wings Way.”
“’Fonzie, are you even listening to me? If we stay here that thing will get us! I don’t know how to make it any clearer!’
Fonzie gulped, tracing her fingers on the floor, and Siobhan knew her decision.”
“Because when a shadow is left by itself there is no light to counteract its misguided ways, and it’s eternally fixed in a darkened spotlight. His shadow morphed into the clumpy, death-black cigarette tar with that distinct, sticky consistency, a texture I knew quite well from my quiet evenings in its seductive company. “
“He only made it a few more steps before he broke the charade and ran. Steam rushed from the Stoompistools in small controlled bursts, totally unlike the screaming cloud in the garden. But the chemist was surprisingly agile, he dodged the worst of the blast, escaping through a hatch in the ceiling.”
“She snapped her fingers, and, as if by some invisible force, Marcus was thrown across the room, and hit the wall. He winced in pain, but his eyes still held a malicious glint.”
“All my mom can talk about is how I’m going to be more independent, how I’m getting out the house, how my brothers and sisters won’t be there to annoy me, and how I can make new friends. I DON’T WANT TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS!”
“They embraced for a long time, not speaking anything for several minutes. Finally, Enoch piped up.
‘Hey Daddy? Where’s Ansel?’
Stephen let loose a small sigh. ‘Wherever you’d like him to be, Enoch. Always.'”
“The ambulance had turned its siren off. Mike knew what that meant. He looked at the cracked watch on his right wrist. Time of death: 12:01.”
“That night, with his child still at home, he hacked into the security system and broke into the museum. He got all the way to the dinosaur model before there was a loud whirring sound, and the dinosaur’s tail whipped around and created a crack in the wall.”
“Masara dressed in a huge suit of monkey armor that was dark red with a light on all sides that would blind anyone who tried to hit him. After he was dressed, Masara, Peter, and Tom went looking for Greg.”
“The static of a thousand rays
captured in the tear
of a heartbeat,
a silent scream ripping through the swallowed air.”
“This 14-year-old boy, Aldrin, had been studying how to hack into many different systems since he was four. He wanted to do this because his grandfather mysteriously went missing eight years ago after he visited NASA to check one of their rockets.”
“The fire popped and crackled as it burned lower. Arkwright deposited the brass scrap absentmindedly on the floor, picking up a coiled spring. ‘So. Come to kill me again?’ he inquired politely.”
“Or perhaps I would stroll across a fire.
I could watch the destruction
and the beauty,
without letting anything reach me”
“I wanted to help her, this magical being who had saved me from my pain.
She doesn’t come back until the next day. But this time when she appears, she is tied up to a chair, in chains, the red coated man walking around her.”
“Yet all are lies,
but the fault lies not within our sense,
but within our mind
where we refuse to make amends.”
“Writopia!”
“I was thrown into the junkyard, by the Trash Man.
I swam out of the junkyard and saw my mom.
I yelled but she was busy on facebook.com!”
“Round and round upon the ground,
the carousel goes spinning.”
“Just then an announcement came over the loudspeaker. ‘We have hit an iceberg and we are going down. Families should proceed to the exit where a life raft will be taking them to the closest land possible.’ I was scared. It was the Titanic all over again.”
“They were almost… alive,
heavy, smooth, warm under your fingertips.”
“Here–the crime rates are as low
as the stress is high
with the nerve picking pressure
of decisions to be made.”
“The logical part of my brain yells at me. I need to control myself. Every day, I promise myself that next time I will go straight to bed. Every day, I break that promise.”
“She walked out, sword swinging menacingly on her hip and watched as warriors nodded to her, acknowledging her record time to return to unfeeling. It was a bit of a game between them, who could recover the fastest after a weakening.”
“I felt the stinging once again. I winced in pain. My mom held me as if I was about to faint. She asked, “are you alright Leroy?” I nodded a bit nervously.”
“I regret to ‘inform’ you that I fear I am to die soon, but as the writer of my tale, my dear, you knew that already. I implore you to reconsider my upcoming demise.”
“the obvious contrasts of
mother and a mom and beloved mommy
and she knows if the news is good or bad
just by how they say hello.”
“If you asked anyone, they would say I was happy or always laughing. No one saw, and no one asked. I don’t blame them. I didn’t realize I was such a good actor.”
“‘Don’t you ever try to tell me what to do. Do you think I’m scared to blow this whole stupid school up, huh? ‘Cause that’s what I’ma do if you don’t shut the hell up!'”
“’What’s your problem?’
‘What do you mean?’ he says, raising his eyebrows
‘Whenever Prosper’s around, you get quiet and ignore us. Do you not like him?’
‘It’s not that. It’s just weird having someone new that’s closer to you than me.’ I am confused and Aaron can tell. ‘Like, we’ve always had friends that we met together. Not just you and then me.’”
“Cynthia dressed herself and rushed upstairs to George’s bedroom, her one-size-too-big slippers brushing against the carpeted floor of the stairs. She imagined what could have happened: Did George die?”
“Yo, yo, check it, yo. I eat it like dinner. You see this stuff I gotta deal with from these beginners? Wait, what? We’re recording? Oh! This is the president speaking. I just wanted to share a short, fire lyric from my song. We’ll buy a lot of clothes when we don’t really need ‘em. Things we buy to cover what’s inside.”
“I have to play piano everyday. Sometimes I don’t do a good job, other times I do, and sometimes I do great. But I usually do my best only when I am motivated.”
“Brine looked at the helicopter, then at the wave. He looked back at the helicopter, took Mittens in one hand, and punted him up into Minegamer’s hands. His eyes locked with Minegamer’s, and he smiled. Then he was swept away by the wave.”
“You loved (love?) him and cared (care?) for him and missed (miss?) him when he went out late to perform at pubs. Why can’t that be again? You and him, you are two pieces of a puzzle that make up both your lives and you fit. Perfectly.”
“But when he hooked a dolphin he fell in
and grabbed its fin and was never to be found again.”
“i was called to the funeral, and i wore a yellow dress
to commemorate the color of her cheeks”
“But the knowledge that one day
The chains will return
Sieges your liberty.”
Papa was there, but he was distant. Far away. Dead with a bullet in his head. Gun down. Man down. Curls drenched in a coat of thick, drying blood. Ambulances can’t help the deceased.
“His crystal eyes caught a glimpse of the outside world,
a world filled with natural beauty,
a world that sang with joy from the perfect chaos of nature.”
“I smile winningly at him but the muscles in my face hurt so I stop and then the jackhammer in my chest breaks through and it’s okay though because I am the first.
But really. It’s okay. I’m okay.”
“’So you’re half-demon?’ she asks.
‘Yeah,’ Cass says. ‘And so are you.’”
“You eat, think, confess, write, whatever you want to do in the waiting room. It’s just a white couch and a white coffee table in a white space with a white ceiling and white floors – everything is white here.”
“He heard rustling and he turned around. Behind him was a map taped to a tree. He grabbed it and opened it. It showed a strange world with four giant land masses at each direction. He pressed his finger against the map and instantly disappeared.”
“I stand. Strong. Waiting for the demon.
The demon that fights for greed.”
“I can’t take from others
Because I know how hard it is to give.”
“As I calm Baji in my arms I look in her deep green eyes, look at her scarred face, and she smiles at me. Should I take her with me? Should I free her from the chains of life?”
“As you plan to make a leaf pile, a work of childish creation, the brown leaf sits at the edge of your vision. You put it at the top. Quite strange, how sending it to its imminent toppling seems to be a nice gesture.”
“She is thinking. Looking at my outstretched hand, half the palm twisted upwards by disease that has ruined my family. Is ruining. Has ruined. I don’t know. She is thinking, I presume, about the power she holds over me. The power I gave her over me.”
“I crawl into bed and put my sheets on.
‘Good night Shimmer,’ I murmur to my dog.
My eyes close and I drift to sleep.”
“the birds sighed your stolen song most begrudgingly right after you left
To kiss another’s cheek”
“On my frieze tells a story
and helps me grow.”
“By following these simple steps, you can shame your sadness into that dark, decrepit part of your brain we like to call The Subconscious.”
“Each one
As luminous as a pearl”
“Arilla knew nothing about the man, other than the fact that his skin was lilac and his hair was dark. But, because of how much the question and her lack of inspiration tormented her, she began to discreetly observe the little things about him.”
“Is it really something on which we dwell?
Or is it thoughts with which we comply?”
“the gods paint a psychedelic watercolor
on your window.”
“There is a long rope, a stage, and two men. They motion me too come over and I do. The rope is tied around my neck as if I’m their pet and we’re just going on a walk.”
“He remembers flickering lights and desperately grasping at the man with the hazel eyes’ hand, sweaty and terrified of the occurrences outside of the closet they were concealed in.”
“’You know who I am, and you see what I have become. You created your own demons, and I am going to make sure you regret everything you have ever done. Also, thanks for the money.’”
“The second thing I notice is the fallen, crumbling buildings. Most of them are still on fire. There’s a burning piece of wood only a few feet away from me. There isn’t a single living person in my vicinity. Emphasis on “
“This morning,
my broken dreams suddenly
appeared in my cupped hands.”
“Jason suddenly had a wild idea. Maybe he could go back in time to prevent his parents’ death. Jason doubted it, but he would do anything to get his parents back. He would never forget five years ago when he was seven years old and their car crashed and how he was the only survivor…”
“Butterflies flutter around my head and leap and frolic through the air. The flower’s fragrant aroma gently floats on the balmy morning breeze as the swing set in the deserted old playground creaks.”
“From a young age, the dream was planted in their minds after being packed into the bed of the family pick up truck, full of blankets and barbeque for the tailgate, as they winded down the dirt roads towards the stadium.”
I’m trying to keep up with you on a trembling tundra
of crushed snow cones, dribbled with flavorings that’ve bled.”
“Court is now in session. We are hearing the case of “State v Jack G. Killer.” Mr. Killer is on trial for charges of murder, theft, breaking and entering, Reckless Endangerment and Extremely Unusual Botany Experimentation without Permit, destruction of property, and possession of illicit beans. “
“My breath came in fast heaves and there were tears in my eyes as I spoke. “You can’t take back the past, Justin. And you can’t blame it on me.”
Through the sea of adrenaline and tears I heard a sound. Sirens.”
“It had been hard for Henry, being only 10 years old. This was the most traumatizing thing that had ever happened to him. To say the least, Henry had not handled it well.”
“No, I don’t, you’re the one who needs to learn that you are so selfish and that you should care about others’ feelings. I liked you Logan, and then, then, you just — ”
Suddenly I looked up. The water was becoming rougher, as the canoe bounced in it swiftly.”
“We haven’t talked in awhile. I don’t know if you remember me, but I hope you do. I don’t know what happened to us. We used to be in sync, and now I don’t know what to tell you.”
“I think everyone always knows when she walks in a room.” I did my best to politely say she was a drama queen.
“I wish the truth was easier, you would never understand.” Her voice was as low as if telling a secret. The wind picked it up, and whispered this in my ear.”
“The Time Gear was the physical part of time and space. In the past, there were documented recordings of the Time Gear. The physical part of it was harnessable, but there were reasons why it was hidden.”
“Afterward I wait. Wait for the guilt that always comes crashing. Big waves that suffocate. Choke me to tears.
And like always, I cry on the way home. And it overflows my car. I am teetering on the top of a mountain.
Guilty of a crime. Very very guilty.”
“I walk up the steps and through the doors, and as I infiltrate the entry, I pause to take a breath.
My lungs expand and I push out my rib cage in which my charred heart is encapsulated”
“I pause beside the swirling red, white, and blue column outside the barbershop and peer in at the calendar on the wall. November 11, 1955.
1955?!”
“You consider sitting down at the table, but the group already there would probably try to include you in conversation, so you don’t.”
“Before I knew it, mother and I would be thrown away too.”
“Okay, okay, I just need to take a few breathers, calm down, and think of a plan that would actually work; because at this rate I’ll never get a girlfriend by the end of high school!”
“An intricate maze of
fatigue, fear, and
furiosity”
“I am always watching…”
“It was nine at night and I was trying to figure out where Marshall was.”
“No, we can’t begin there”
“Why do i feel like i can’t breathe?!
Why do i feel like i can’t get out of this box?
Why can’t i speak?”
“Coldness seems to seep
through the windows and walls,
sneaking past her sweater
and chills her to the bones,
as the demons fight in the air
where they can’t be seen.”
“But in truth I knew the real her all along
I realize now that I was trying so hard for everything to stay the same
Even though I knew it never would”
“She laid there,
numb.
It was okay.
She was okay.”
“Being alone while messiness
Surrounds
In the form of something normal.
Being together while order
Surrounds
In the form of something strange.”
““Liv? Liv!” I yelled out. “She’s just hiding, playing a game with me.””
“they went to complete their crimes”
“Then, our force field began to disintegrate. Everyone started screaming and panicking as soldiers began firing and I was also thinking, What are we gonna do??! “
“Words are worth a thousand pictures
and we can’t change that, either”
“There lies a man flat on a bed, his hackle horrendous, his skin frosty, his eyes a certain color of impassive magnitudes. The hoarseness of his breathing infected the atmosphere with dense tension.”
“Fog Bank is special. My kind of special.”
“avoid the production of carbon dioxide. (Your average car produces 3 kg/day of CO2. To clear rainforest to produce beef for one hamburger produces 75 kg of CO2. Eating one pound of hamburger does the same damage as driving your car for more than three weeks)”
“”I haven’t talked to mom in a year. Dad doesn’t even like to acknowledge that I’m here. I can’t lose you too, Man,” she says. She touches my shoulder delicately like I would break if she put all her weight on me.”
“The officers on duty said they just hadn’t noticed it, while dozens of travelers said that they remembered the briefcase being there even hours before the tragedy. The stories just didn’t add up.”
“Arnold: What are you doing here, Eric?
Eric: What are you doing here, Arnold?
Arthur: I know what you two are doing here. You came here ‘cuz you hate me.
Arnold: No, I wanted to speak to you, but they didn’t let me!”
“I don’t remember who was here
To celebrate throughout the years
I want to stay, although I know
My party ended long ago”
“Arnold: Me, not landing the job? Are you serious? The only thing I have to worry about is coming up with a good stage-name. “Arnold Ricassuss” is not a greatly and widely-loved name. Probably. Just guessing. I know! James Hardy! That’s so cool.”
“Jason as being 28 was obsessed with finding a wife. He would date anyone who was breathing and was determined to be married before the age of 30.”
“But maybe the monsters were too big”
“My name is George Applewhite. And I messed up. Big time.”
“The rope was hanging, but something was pulling the weight down of the rope. I moved my eyes down along the strip of rope. Towards the end it had a deep red color of blood stained into the rope.”
“These people have taught me how to build a foundation of how to become a well-rounded individual.”
“The numbers are buzzing in my head
I systematically copy them on the board
The ringing
It’s back”
“she hid in her backyard by the swings that she never sat on.
She had stolen her father’s matches and kissed it with her hair,
just to see “what would happen.”
If she would become life.”
““Yeah, I don’t. I can’t. I don’t feel anything,” she replies honestly. “I’m not gay. I think I’m straight.””
“I was terrified. I frantically looked around. I saw, to my relief, the agent, the man with the blonde hair, who had arrested me. He rushed in, and they brawled. “
“Mr. Krabs saw Plankton trying to steal the Krabby Patty formula and said, “Aha! looks like you’re stealing my Krabby Patty formula! Plankton!” because he was stealing the formula and going back to the Chum Bucket to make Krabby Patties.”
“So I planted these seeds to watch our love grow,
instead of fading like the crinkling leaves of my past mistakes.”
“eventually my dad
may find his princess,
and my mother will find
her prince charming.”
“She didn’t frown or make any gesture that would indicate unhappiness, her neutrality was in fact quite disconcerting.”
“Maya, we’ve been walking for hours, and we don’t know where we’re going, and I think we’ve gone in a circle, or maybe not, ‘cause this whole mountain looks the same, and we have no idea what we’re going to do, and I’m really frustrated and I want Mom and Dad!”
“A dagger that started a revolution. A boat that ended a war. A gun that shook the world. These acts, of both bravery and cowardice, do not boast of a leader, but those that want to make a difference.”
“The world is ending.”
“Do these twisted thoughts that entertain me make me a bad person? After all, they kept me alive. After all, those who didn’t think in these ways are now dead, i.e. every passenger but me.”
“He left without looking at me”
“Why must I make this speech? You simply can’t kill me. I am neither dead nor alive. I merely am and shall continue to be until the end of time.”
“I was silent. I tried to think. I couldn’t even remember my name. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.”
“Rachel always was looking to be someone different.”
“Kids should be able to hold political power and have more responsibility than they do in the present day. “
“It was a good recital, not that it matters, not now. I remember that last note I struck, it was a C#, and the note hung in the air, the piece didn’t seem finished, and it wasn’t supposed to be.”
“that I am not a woman yet
because until the world is different
I will not be a woman
and that I will not be a woman
until the world is different”
“My hand shaking, I shouted, “Expecto Patronum!” A weak silver hedgehog appeared, and quickly faded. My dad made me learn how to cast a Patronus because of his problems with them. The dementor sucked the happiness out of both of us.”
This story is a fantasy about a solar system with only two planets. One is called Alasia, and the other is called Anesia. In this Universe, some people get magical powers. Everybody, however, has […]
“As he stepped outside, the beasts looked straight at him and all ran away except for one that headed straight towards him, as if he were about to bite on to him, but as he saw the knife heading towards him he ran away toward the group. “
“Harry began to ironically reflect. He wondered if it was his constant irony that made others alienate and dislike him.”
“Although the flower was young and vibrant,
within seconds, it turned gray and crumbled.”
“And here, the moon knives through the night
The leaves like puppets in the light”
“but I most certainly did not expect it to be there.
and perhaps it was not too beautiful,
but it gave off an essence of tranquility,
of mystery,
that someone was there once before me.”
“She was the one, with that same *** smirk, to slip it onto her own neck, declaring herself king. The new ruler. The guardian angel. And she didn’t cry once.”
“But there is one thing that brings back a flood of joy, sadness and all of the other feelings from the movie Inside Out: a doormat of a chicken.”
“But as Dian groggily blinked his cerulean eyes, it was clear to him that he was still at Manhattan Kittens, in his little clear box, with his boring, uneventful siblings, the Grey Tom kitten and the Dark Striped Female kitten. “
“As Dave and the llama walk down the cave, the liquid inside the crystals start to move in like a whirlpool sort of motion.”
“When Mother and Father returned home, it was late, and Lottie was still sobbing.”
“The drying laundry seems
Like ghosts
The wind crying over mended seams.”
“‘But I’ve never seen lights like that before,’ she thought aloud as four lights zipped through the sky.”
“The atmosphere of the room depleted as Meryl began to shake vigorously again and havoc began to ensue, but peace was still noticeable in every form.”
“My mind is now a tower made of diamonds. But now there are walls and gates to keep traitors out.”
“A bridge between two worlds
above regretful waters
ideas that didn’t make it
friends who left me
swept under the bridge.”
“And there was always the pull, the pull of the tide that sucked the sand from beneath you grain by grain, trying to suck you with it.”
“Lexi still didn’t talk to me, and I could do nothing to fix it. Ben wasn’t talking to me cause he thought we were a thing and then I got back together with Hunter. Then Lexi and Ben wanted to get back at me by telling Hunter I hooked up with Isaac and even Hunter wouldn’t talk to me.”
“Do not go anywhere near the fifth floor…”
“The man’s face was scraped raw by sand, blood stained his beard, which was long and unkempt, hung in thick strands past his chest. Blood dribbled slowly from the corner of his mouth, which was twisted in a grimace of agony.”
“Aaron responded. “I mean, if all there is is survival, why would you even want that?” It was a good point, Frank thought. He had never really thought living was an option. Life, and life only, is compulsory.”
“This abnormality was very hard for me to comprehend in my younger ages. I have learned to embrace it as opposed to hate it. I realized that I am blessed beyond imagination to have the family that I have.”
“Breathe, Carrie, she thought to herself, Just breathe and it’ll be over before you know it. They’ll leave before dawn, Carrie, they always do.”
“dragging me along, captive
a burlap sack
of Brooklyn haze dissipating over me
my magic scooter
suddenly is not as broken as I thought.”
“and let the sweet rust
spread across my tongue
as a coat
of armor
and it still didn’t hurt”
“two is too long .. it runs & it bleeds & it bleeds and it bleeds out.”
“He doesn’t seem sad or angry. He was satisfied to have finally finished the painting, and even though the woman escaped again, he was glad.”
“Ride as fast as a wild horse
Save every hoof you clean
Enjoy the ride you will never forget”
“It seems that earlier this evening you got into a fight. All we here know is that you punched someone and they punched you. You both passed out and were checked in to the ER in ambulances at about 6 o’clock. “
“She’s virtually dead. She doesn’t feel the need to live. When you don’t have the motivation, you don’t live. She doesn’t have the will to live.”
“She shouldn’t care about me that much! She cares about me too much! She should have looked both ways. She should have looked one way. Not at me but at the road. But she was looking the wrong way. She was looking at me.”
“As he walked through the grove for the second time that day, he felt truly lost.”
“After the year which killed hundreds, survivors left the hospital and moved as far as possible from the city with fear that the disease would come back for revenge.”
“Michael blinked twice, trying to convince himself that he was seeing things. The figure kept staring, He could hear his heart thumping against his ribcage, his adrenalin was pumping rapidly through his veins. “
“The second I walk into the theater, everyone looks at me with concern in their eyes, and a few people laugh. “What, you’ve never seen a girl walking around with her sunglasses on inside? I’ve seen at least half of you in the same position,” I yell.”
“As Mark and Leo stepped into one of the homes, the world felt like it was tipping over. The warmth and light and enclosure felt claustrophobic, but Mark didn’t care.”
“Love is a strong word a word you only use if you really mean it. Love: an intense feeling of deep affection. And that was what I was feeling: deep affection.”
” Friends lend a helping hand in times of need and make our life easier. They can offer a meal, explanations for homework or help someone deal with their feelings in times of crisis.”
“Liam was shocked. The Jacksons were mean, but they had been decent enough to let him eat. “CHILD ABUSE!” he shouted. He ran to the kitchen and dialed 911.”
“LISTEN TO ME
wait for me
she is the sun
Eclipsed and dead
I am a voice
Mute and soundless”
“The hunter instantly thought of his deceased wife, who had been killed on the hunt. He shook his head. He couldn’t let the shapeshifter know he had a weakness. It could morph into his wife, and easily make him drop his guard.”
“I get light headed. I hear a long flat “eeeeee,” like in the movies when someone dies in a hospital. Then, all I see is blackness and all I can hear is the “eeeeee.”
“Then I opened the door and ran outside. When I reached the tree I opened my arms and hugged it with all my might.”
“She always stays by that window”
“I can feel my heart pumping
and hear my blood pulsing
coursing through my veins
and my heart beats
onetwothreefourfivesixseveneight”
“The window was tinted, but I could see a few officers talking. One of them was the same officer that had come to my house. He was walking on a brace, and a bandage was on his nose. He shot me a look that could kill”
“Her father cropped her body from the family photo,
told her she did not fit the frame.”
” went to go see Cerebral Hawk and the Combo because I loved their song, “High Schoolers Make Me Nauseous.” So imagine my surprise when I saw the amount of teens there. I hate teenagers! Many near me talked about weed and yolo and I wanted to throw up.”
“I was going to give her a goodbye kiss but she said her dad was nearby and the only thing scarier than teenage girls is their dads.”
“The standards for a restaurant to say that they serve gluten-free should be stricter so that it is safe for people with celiac or an allergy to gluten can eat there safely.”
“There was a massive flagpole where they had all dropped off their cars and a couple of rustic looking cabins. The place smelled like pine cones and mold. On the edge of the camp was a body of water that was a gross, murky brown. From the looks of it, this was not a resort.”
“Trained assassins. Hired muscle. Ex-veterans. They’ve all applied for the job. Why’d you pick me? I’m a seventeen year old girl.”
“I push at the wall, half expecting it to crumble in my hands. The wall holds its stance. I look behind me at a figure slumped against the wall.”
“Really? The seven month block? I would have thought that would have passed by now. Let me explain something to you. This writer’s block is nothing more than your mind not wanting to accept something that has happened in your life. “
“And then I used my ability, which by the way I get from eating. I shot the monster with my smelly gas to make the monster faint! On the other hand Helium sat around doing nothing, so ha! It’s Helium’s fault!”
“Silence is the loudest sound in the universe.”
“She saw he had wings but only saw the tip, which was white and purple. He threatened to kill her, and she ran away. “
“Meanwhile, fire raged. Flames rose high from the ground to the sky, stretching for miles along the California coastline. They were ruthless and unceasing, tearing through forests, farmland, and cities without mercy.”
“Suddenly, I lay back in the cemetery with tiny beads of sweat on my forehead. My body ached with memories long forgotten. A mournful bird swept over me, serenading the dead and a fatherless daughter.”
“Until its wings
Land on your shoulder on
The cold train,
Then you are scared
Because such miracles
Have become unfamiliar,
And the unfamiliar,
We have learned to
Reject”
“the wind blew with a sigh and the trees bent
not unlike a mortician bends over the shell of a soul
scalloped in just the right places”
“Sometimes god is bipolar
Other times it rains
Her limp hair reminds him of that’
“forgotten colors
tucked away
behind smiling faces
ridden with pain”
“I can hear them. I can hear their whispers. The sound of them laughing. Plotting their next kill. Their revenge.”
“John got catapulted into GregBear’s mouth, as the teeth closed down on my head. Just as the teeth punctured my skin, I saw that GregBear was going to chomp a heart! I could feel my skull shatter, and blood started flying all over the place. “
“When she was twelve, I was fifteen.
She wore a bunny suit. No one talked about it.
Before she was a bunny, though, she was the neighborhood cadaver.”
“If you were out in the morning of a weekday, you would see most kids up and getting ready for school by seven a.m. Most schools start at 7:30 to 8 a.m. and this is too early!”
“And the sky blue of my walls matches the color of my eyes and now that I think about it, that’s tacky. My walls should be light grey to match the color of my eternal need for whipped cream because it’s not with passion it’s with longing, and light grey is the international color of rainy days and on rainy days you long for the sun. But I don’t long for the sun.”
“Once when I asked the Worldwielder about this he smiled, gave me a pat on the head, and hinted, “non-Euclidean,” before climbing the great big staircase to the places above.”
“Before long, the figure had grabbed the Mona Lisa, not forgetting to put on black gloves (that certainly didn’t stand out compared to the rest of his dark outfit) and then swiftly exited the room. Unfortunately, the thief had forgotten to deactivate the alarms that initiated when someone left the building; as soon as he set his gloved hands on the handle of the doors, a deafening alarm screeched throughout the museum.”
“Joe stumbled into the alleyway. His head was pounding, he could barely form a conscious thought. His vision blurred and tunnelled, focusing on only the cowering man in front of him.”
“On the surface America maintains the hallmarks of a healthy democracy: the right to vote, the right to a jury, and the right to an attorney. But underneath this glimmering sheen of equitable justice lies a dark labyrinth of policies and bureaucracies which ensure that we live in a nation of two justice systems: one for the rich and one for the poor.”
“I take out the notebook from my bag and write ‘you look beautiful!’. I tear out the page, and stick it on the mirror.”
“The things that scared her the most were the people who tried to tell her to change. She was scared she would listen. She knew what she did was bad, and she knew she was a bad person, but she didn’t want to be a good person. If she became a good person she would have to care about other people.”
“A ratio of emotions, that no one…not even I could control. My mind and body would free themselves and feel what they wanted.”
I would never be tied down to humanity’s prefixes of an average girl.
“I’m falling into the blackness, the blackness surrounding me and engulfing me like fire when it’s engulfing you with flames. “
“The hallway is no longer a hallway. It looks like we’re in the middle of a meadow.”
“The further I go, the darker it seems to get. If that’s even possible. Just when I feel like I can’t stay here any longer, trapped in this car, the headlights illuminate a little wooden house. It looks…somewhat inviting.”
“I mean, what is something I would want that badly? I mean, Martin Luther King wanted voting rights. That’s something huge. Me, I fight for what color shoes I should wear each day.”
“And the days were hers alone.
Days of quiet
steps along hardwood.
Days sprawled across her funeral pyre”
“I was the shadow of your silhouette
Then the sun slipped into the simmering sea
Like a delicate egg being hardboiled
And we became crepuscular”
“I ask what color hair he had
he had quiffed brown hair that he loved
that he loved as much as I loved my red
red blood drips on the floor as we talk”
“The families spent every summer after that in Bear’s parents’ country house in the Adirondack mountains. The children were summer friends, never managing to keep in touch over the year. There was a magic that only existed in the woods behind the house, and the field in front of the woods.”
“My skin is prim, buffed until all the callouses have chipped away,
gilded like my eyes, my straight locks, my button-nose.
But, my dear, there is a loneliness in polite. A void among the dyed roots.
A core like a dilapidated creature, made of polished metal, with a coating
of rust that lies beneath it all.”
“The spiderweb of her hair waves in the soft breezes that blow off the ocean that I like to think are made from sailor’s salty tales and mermaid’s murderous secrets. She isn’t looking at me so she doesn’t notice me writing poetry about her and taking her all in like my eyes are at an all-you-can-eat buffet and she is the meal. “
“My bedroom has light green walls and a bed with a purple lace canopy. I lie down on my bed and eat my strawberries, then lick my fingers. My flowy white dress feels uncomfortable but, I am too tired to change clothes. I have too much to think about. Who will I choose to be my apprentice? What the heck is the most valuable thing in the world?”
“I had the will to cut away the pavement
that made my feet hurt as they pounded
hurtling me past figures that leeched eagerness
I tried to see past metaphysical maybes that
made my head burn and cry out strings of lost thought
lost imagination
lost longings”
“My cold drink arrived, brimming with ice cubes and raindrops of water dripping down the side. As I brought the drink to my lips I felt a cool trickle of sweet tea run down my throat, refrigerating my body. I smiled and looked down at my newly arrived eggs, with a beautiful array of vegetables sitting by their side sparkling with carrots, spinach, tomatoes, green and yellow peppers, all the colors I hoped the Santorini sunset would hold.”
“Yellow is linked to happiness, so why wouldn’t eating yellow paint also be linked to happiness? It makes perfect sense.
I’m sure everybody has been at the point where they wanted to eat yellow paint, or their version of yellow paint.”
“I slowly drew the gun out, the weight odd in my hands. This was nothing like the high-tech, aerodynamic models we trained with in school. This was heavy in the back, and seemed to resonate with pure physical power. There were no settings, no long-range or short-range dials. Just a Flick The Safety, Point At Target, And Shoot kind of gun.”
“School. Lots of stories have been written about school. Lots of kids do not like school. Few do. Teachers give orders. Students listen.”
“My pages of homework just keep piling and piling, they utterly flooded my room!”
“Arms, legs, fingers
Mouth turns up at the corners
Green, green, green.
Green thread, green walls.
Skin is pink, delicate but powerful.”
“These woods have bewitched time.
The trees and knolls and rocks,
Statues of their former selves.”
“‘When I was your age…’
There are few words more hated
Than these
Because a rant always follows.
Generations are different, for God’s sake!”
“Your two-year incessant torment of me has done a lot to make me who I am now. I suppose that was your plan all along, wasn’t it? You wanted to make me a better person, didn’t you?”
“Even though we continuously want to change our image, we could never go through with our plan because of our parents. If we dyed all of our hair, the result would be too obvious to hide, and we were not willing to completely disobey our parents with tattoos, so my last option was to get a piercing.”
“Some said all humans used to be big people. And, the big people were not always born with wings and tails. People said that it was bad air. Some called the air: radiation.”
“Children loved the summer and they never once wished the car that rode along that endless road would come to a stop. If the winding road was seemingly forever, so should be the car.”
“Kids were supposed to be treated like babies until they reached fourth grade, or so she thought. They were supposed to be pinched on the cheeks and be cooed at, not follow instructions!”
“I look at my arms and legs and see I am scratched up and bleeding. I look back to see how far we have gone and it’s only about 20 feet. I start to lose hope and think we are never going to get home.”
“Later, I’d wonder what would happen if I hadn’t spilled the milk that morning in my haste to pour it into the cereal bowl. I wouldn’t have to have taken a detour on the way home, and I wouldn’t have discovered what I did.”
“Without creativity motivating me I can no longer be an ARTIST”
“Heartache tunes
Sadness melodies
and the sticky popsicle
in a sticky summer”
I had to crane my neck slightly to have a full view of the gleaming crescent looming in the distance. I turned to see it, and at the same time he did too. We were suddenly inches apart, our noses so close they could almost brush against each other. I breathed in; he breathed out.
“Today is the first day of the eighth grade. I didn’t think I’d make it. Honestly. After spring in seventh grade I didn’t think I could even be here. I thought I’d be still caught up in a separate time. Still fighting reality. I lost that battle. Reality hit me like a sucker punch to the gut. But it seems that I’ve overcome it.”
“No one could pay me to live in an office, no matter what career,
The older I grow up, however, there is a growing fear,
That I will be that man, who every day walks into here,
A grey glass building furnished with laminated plywood,
An earthly purgatory of despair, a dull life stuck in the mud.”
“This is your go-to guide on surviving being a twin.
Well, this is NOT going to be easy. You see, to be honest, being a twin is awful. Take it from me. So now for the tips.”
“I let my arms float to my side
Weightless due to the gentle breeze
I close my eyes once more
And imagine that I am a bird
Soaring aimlessly through the sky
Only attached to the ground by
The cool ocean crashing
Against my ankles
Burying my feet in the moist sand”
“I slipped out of the house quietly, knowing that if my parents knew what I was doing, they’d lock me in my room for sure. No parent wants their kid knocking on the door of a house that sounds like something out of a bad horror/sci-fi movie.”
“It was the summer of 1929 when I first found the house. I was roaming Central Park with my best friend, Cass. It was cold, and our breaths were white in the air. The hum of the factories was louder in the still snow. It was silent on the streets of New York City, like a ghost town.”
“I’m grey yet everything is in color
Choking on the fear of the unknown
Drowning in my simpleness”
“Silence filled the car as it rolled into the driveway. Ayla grabbed her phone, slung her bag onto her back and ran up the stairs, holding back tears. She fumbled with her key as she fought the urge to start bawling. Don’t cry, don’t do it, don’t let them get to you.”
“The only reason we don’t fly away is because of martian physics. You see, every planet has their own physics which the people come up with. So for our planet’s physics, we made it so nothing bad will ever happen.”
“Similes are some great stuff
I can never get enough
Metaphors are like chamomile tea
Subtle but strong enough for me”
“The dinner table was eerily silent. Nothing but the smacking of tongues against the roofs of mouths broke the spell. I sat in a furious haze, determine to keep my lips locked, as this was my vow. This continued for at least another minute — me staring down crossly at my lamb sausages, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.”
“Fleeting.
Tears wiped from crinkled eyes, heads thrown back with laughter.
Petals waving in the wind. Fast moments.
Forgotten.”
“That day her head was down, buried beneath a plaid scarf. Her hair was shorter then. And I thought her eyes had been greener, but maybe that was just the illusion that the street lamps cast as they flickered and we crunched onward. Maybe they just got greener with every moment that I spent thinking of that night, biting my cheek until I felt the blood break through.”
“Normality shielded by your ignorance
my world blocked by the disgusted look on your immaculate faces
my head booming with perceptions that you will never hear. Not from my beastly face”
“About 40 million immigrants move to the United States every year. About 50% of those immigrants don’t speak English.”
“Fear is his ghost
It binges and gluts on a sane head
With words that are upchucks of senseless ragamuffins:
Their meanings need no coaxing”
“Cornflower Blue are waters in the well
And green and glowing like an ocean swell
Heart of friendship long away
One has left and one must stay.”
“Nobody moved fast, after a long day of sitting stiff and being moved from table to kitchen to bed, we were all sore. The house was illuminated with light and a silhouette moved across the wall, Mother. There was heated conversation between her and Father (I was not surprised), but finally the light was extinguished and the house was silent again.”