A Pop Star’s Thoughts on the Universe
A Pop Star’s Thoughts on the Universe What is the universe made of? A cab without much of a brain. It’s so unbelievably stupid. How did life begin? The teen movie thing wanted this […]
A Pop Star’s Thoughts on the Universe What is the universe made of? A cab without much of a brain. It’s so unbelievably stupid. How did life begin? The teen movie thing wanted this […]
Every single one of the two million people who fly every day passes through the airport. Those people are there with purpose, whether to attend a funeral, go to a camp, or to return […]
it’s not christmas anymore her bruised lips are stained with sickly sweet pomegranate wineher hollow eyes drunk with power (and with pain)the moonlight beams into the darkness through wooden blindscasting shadows on long-forgotten coffee […]
Tendrils of my gray fingers twist and crawl Infiltrate the chinks in your armor Coil and squeeze around your mind I will exploit you from within I afflict cold chills, sweaty palms upon you: […]
Trigger warning: suicide Stevie Dreger was the first friend I ever lost. He was also the last person in the world I would have expected to kill himself. But regardless of any previous premonitions […]
“Dear little lady bug,
By the time you read this, I will be gone. I didn’t mean to leave you. I love you, but I won’t be coming back.”
“As Jac swung open the heavy front door, an aroma of blood and flesh seized his unprepared nostrils. He slightly winced but he knew the smell was promising. The more rural the town, the better the meat, he decided. Fresh meat from the outskirts of Wales.”
“I’m not exactly human. I know, I know it’s a shock, but I’m a penguin.”
“I’ve been swimming competitively for eight years, but I’m not here to tell you about a whole eight years worth of swimming. I am here to tell you that swimming and other sports have an enormous impact on athletes who struggle with mental health. I want to spread awareness about this by sharing my story.”
“Many Harry Potter readers don’t question Lord Voldemort’s actions. They just accept the fact that he is evil and kills at least 20 people, if not hundreds more, and move on. However, I believe that there is always an excuse, or at least a reason, behind everything — even the actions of an evil wizard. That’s why I want to delve into Lord Voldemort’s crimes and why he commits them. Although Lord Voldemort’s actions are wrong, he has reasons for them. Some of them could be valid, others might just be interesting to explore.”
“Hello. I hate the word ‘hello.’ I hate the word ‘shower.’ I hate the word ‘cheese-stick.’ I hate the word ‘hate’ most of all. It puts a bitter taste in my mouth, and that’s why I hate it so much.”
I work as a designer. It’s ironic, as the fashion industry is known for being problematic in terms of body image. I’ve always loved fashion though, dressing up, going shopping. But it was never so much about how I felt in the clothes. It was more like… how I felt when people noticed me in them.
“Time moved forward.
Tearing deeper into my flesh.
The more the scars grew
The more my wounds bled.
The more something within
Began to fade away.”
“Hunt and gather / Build and break / Some of us give but / everybody takes”
“There was once a diner on the highway. It was small and dinky, but charming in that old time sense. It invoked a 50’s style aesthetic, with a shiny metallic roof and dim neon signs announcing to the world that it is, in fact, open. The food was bad, no doubt about it. But the people were nice…”
“The bridal moon turns a natural eye to the wild pools of sunflowers, / the bloodshot summerhouses and discarded Cola cans / and the air strokes like heaviest satin.”
“I may not know you, but I can tell what kind of person you are when you don’t have a strong mindset regarding your future.”
“The boy stood up, and with a slip of his foot, he fell off the oak. The drop must have been at least fifteen feet. As soon as his back hit the ground, ominous darkness aroused.”
“I tried to crawl faster, my limbs sinking into the muck on the side of the now strawberry-colored creek and coming up with loud sucking sounds that would definitely alert any guards to my presence. Lucky for me, there probably weren’t any guards in the area. In fact, there was probably no one at all.”
“It was dark outside. Her blood and bones ceaselessly begged her to go back to sleep, but that’s about the only thing they seemed willing to do. She felt as though she needed a cup of coffee to give herself the will to get up and make coffee. Iris Adley woke up.”
“For the most part, they are silent and still. Only Hussein paces back and forth across the cramped white room. Not even the heavy thuds his boots make seem to distract anyone. The quietness that drapes the rest of outer space in a smothering quilt now covers the tiny space cruiser.”
“I woke up with the sun. I never used to wake up with the sun, sleeping well into ten o’clock, but very recently, my body began to shake me awake in time to watch the sunrise. I didn’t know what change had caused that, but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant. Sure, it required an extra cup of coffee at work, but I didn’t mind watching the yellow and orange hues of the sky.”
“Death is not something people take lightly. People die, others mourn them, and then we eventually forget about them.”
“Once there was a spooky haunted house, and a vampire lived in it. It had a lot of spooky things in it like ghosts. Everybody was scared of it.”
“I looked back at my laundry machine and found myself staring right into the eyes of a fish. It was red with tinges of blue on its head and fins. In all, it was about as big as my two fists placed side by side, pretty large for a fish. I didn’t scream, or run away. I just stared open-mouthed. I probably looked like a fish myself. “
“I was lost in my thoughts until Mom interrupted, me, “Ahem, time to stop dreaming. We are here.” It was now seven o’clock at night, and it was almost pitch black. Caw, caw, caw! The crows here freaked me out, but definitely not as much as the mansion itself.”
“He wakes up early that morning. The room is dark, and the sofa is lumpy. He flips the pancakes and chops the strawberries and leaves them on a chipped plate on the wooden table. The shards of porcelain dishes turn the floor into a dangerous mosaic he tiptoes over. He sets a note next to the plate, a plea for forgiveness scribbled on it with a ballpoint pen.”
“In the corner of an illuminating empty, dull, gray room, I stand with pale hands that shiver like a shower in mid-December, shaking like the earth I am on. All over this neighborhood are factories, left to right. There is not a single park here. The smoke stacks develop into the sky like an evil crop of corn, and they give off these fumes which cover many of our homes with dust. It almost looks as if I had put black paint on my hands and rubbed it all over miniature, lego-like houses.”
“I wake up Saturday morning and check my phone from my bed. Looks like it will be another sunny day that I spend inside. I have been rehearsing the musical Legally Blonde all week, and tonight is the performance. I play Brooke Wyndham, an exercise queen accused of murder. Some of my friends and family are coming, so the show has to be really good. While I’m sad it’s almost over, a sense of relief washes over me. It has been a lot of work.”
“It wasn’t supposed to end like this. The coral-colored suitcase open on the bed, the clothes hanging ready to be packed, the car come to take her away. The sun streams through the window, illuminating the pictures on the wall, reminders of a happier time. Outside, birds are chirping and children are playing in the park across the street. By all rights, it should be a beautiful day.”
“Kind / He was just kind / Everyone knew it / But I liked it the most”
“There was a sound, like gobs of blinking eyes. It was merely an echo-y whisper, yet it was disconcerting because there was nothing that could make that blinking sound around you, and though you had felt ocean waves hitting your feet then receding, they made no sound.”
“My heart beats extra hard as I step onto my bike. The ride to school isn’t that long, but if I take the main road instead of my usual back alleyways, I might be able to stretch the ten minute ride into fifteen. That’s five extra minutes I don’t have to spend taking my math test. Five extra minutes I don’t have to spend watching numbers dance uncontrollably across the page, twirling just out of my grasp.”
“Being hardcore is well, hard. I have to party all night and sleep all day and never study to keep up my image. Do you think I want to be doing shots on the weekends? Please, I’d rather be watching the Barbie TV show with my four-year-old sister. But we all have images to keep up. Some more than others. And we all have a breaking point. Mine was earlier today.”
“Three minutes before school ended, the only noises to be heard were the ticking of the clock (that ran two hours too late), the tapping of pencils (like that Britney Spears music video), and the sporadic, panicked scratching of pens on paper (pop quizzes are never fun).”
“Summer smiles in sun-kissed bliss with her cloudless days, / Watching over a child with emerald eyes, / Who rocks back and forth in his chair in a joyful haze / And laughs in glee under bright and clear skies.”
“I’m standing there in the tunnel waiting for my teammates to exit the team room. I’m feeling nervous because I have never been in this big of a game. I know this because I could hear my heart beating and nothing else besides that. This is the state championship game.”
“The light stains my eyelids a / lurid pink. / I fumble with the / Pen and paper / That lay on my desk.”
“your words coat my lips / like honey / i sit cross-legged on my bed and speak them / over and over again”
“A dream that I had once, which was extremely odd, was that I started off standing on the top of the moon. I walked forward to the edge of the moon and fell all the way through space, down to earth.”
“For all my life, I’ve wished I could be someone else. Somewhere else. New York. I remember being a kid, flipping through magazines at the one dentist office within a five mile radius, looking at the glamour and flashiness that the models and actresses flaunted in their pictures.”
“I suddenly have a tingly feeling over my entire body, and I grow very hot and dizzy. I find myself too weak to stay sitting up. I see my phone on the bedside table turn to 12:00 A.M.. Thursday, October 11. This isn’t what I thought turning 18 would feel like.”
“An elegant work of art, / Fragility, / And clarity”
“An AR-15 has 15 functioning parts. The length of the gun, the speed of the bullet determines how lethal a fatality is. / The time it takes to unload the empty chamber. / That one flick can cause a mass destruction.”
“‘I’m here for breaking dress code,’ she explained, rolling her eyes in irritation. ‘God forbid I wore something I actually wanted to. To be fair, it was an accident. They change the dress code so often that half of the time I don’t even know what’s in it.'”
“A lot of times I don’t feel comfortable without a coat on. The thought of people staring at my arms and my body is terrifying to me, so whenever I’m going out anywhere I always take a coat. The only bad thing about this is that it only works in the winter. In the spring and summer is when I really feel uncomfortable.”
“Jason walked right up to me in front of 70 Pine, our designated meet up spot. As always, he was late, and I was early. The sun was going to set at almost eight o’clock, and it was only six, so we were good to make the sunset shots.”
“It was June 18, 1999, when Bob lost his first finger. It was an otherwise normal day at Gleg’s Edible Food. The vegetable guy had gone on a “mission to mars” (this was a scam), so Bobby “Ten Fingers” was to do the job. He was instructed to cut the frungis, by Gleg himself.”
“The stars were punch-outs in the blackness above her, sometimes it hurt to think about space. She could think herself out of the earth, through the blue ring of atmosphere and even further beyond, looking down. If she willed it, it was possible for her to imagine herself growing more distant, shrinking, fading into… what?”
“the type of tiredness that settles behind your eyes and doesn’t leave. / the type of quiet that twists your gut and unsettles your mind. / the type of moments that make you wish for an alternate reality.”
“and they told stories, too, of gasoline sickness, / the bloodshot eyes and ragged breaths,
the sleepless nights and sleepwalking days, / how they were homesick/homesick/seasick/homesick,”
“The doorbell jingled as a woman and her daughter entered the cafe. They did not look at all alike. The daughter was short and chubby and seemed to waddle instead of walk; the mother was tall and lanky, each angle from chin to elbow sharpened to a point.”
“One nation, torn apart / by cartographic line / and the thunder of fifteen million footfalls. / Bodies pile and neighbors leave / for a chance to live. / That history, I am its future.”
“You know that feeling when some days, we wake up and we just don’t want to get out of bed? So bedridden that sometimes, it even hurts to breathe. What’s the point of all this?”
“In an open space shadowed by the main building, a Venorian maid, wearing her long, brown dress, was sweeping the leaves off the stone floor. The space was a circle, with four entrances and seating on the edge. In the middle of two entrances was a statue. The maid brushed her scaly forehead and looked up at the statue. It was a large, marble sculpture of a Dark Elf woman holding a sword in one hand and an olive branch in the other.”
“We wear uniforms to make us all the same, so we spent all our time emphasizing all the ways that we were different. In some ways it is a good thing, but in other ways, it is quite demoralizing. My new school suddenly brought my race into focus. For the first time, I started confronting what it meant to be different: a black, dark-skinned girl, growing up in a predominately white city in America.”
“The water was dirty. He could see the grime washing off with every move of his hands over his dirty body; specks of blood flaked off into the water and opened old wounds that he didn’t know he had. His toes poked against the surface of the water, hair slicked back with shampoo. Months without relaxation, and he was tense.”
“It stood with white brick, tattered with dirt and age. The door was a rustic red, gaping open in an ivy, spiraled archway. Over the years, it developed rotting wood, the pungent smell of dead rats, creaky floorboards, and the decay of things that had not been touched in decades. This only became clear when inside the house, but nobody dared to take a single step on the property.”
“The factory was the most beautiful building in town. It stood proudly at the corner of 17th and Orlando Street. It was a treasure to the people of the town. To a passersby, it was obvious that it used to be a church. It had beautiful stained glass windows in the most vibrant colors, making it stand out in the otherwise dull cityscape.”
“The night sky plasters a layer of darkness above us like a ceiling. We lie stretched out on a blanket, our phones inside the house and turned off. The air is still, as the fireflies appear sporadically and then dip back shyly into the darkness. “
“The man walked up to the school building early in the morning. The students wouldn’t be there for another hour, but he had to be there before anyone else. He groggily fumbled with his keyring, his fingers not awake enough to choose the right one.”
“A headless teddy bear lay in the grass. Its body reached for its head only a few feet away. It stretched its neck in vain. The teddy bear was hopeless, hapless, and distraught.”
“Eliza’s eyes grew wide at the world. The space around her was light and airy. She floated up and around the little room in the aircraft. Her face was soft, cheeks glowing and red. Her lips were thin and moist, but no breath escaped them.”
“The creak of broken brakes and / the soft whoosh of bicycle wheels / lift up lazy dogs’ heads / as we slip through the night.”
“We woke up early that day, / a cold morning with icy winds that burnt our faces. / We gripped our hot chocolates with stiff fingers, / every sip of warm rich liquid somehow warmer than a summer day”
“I had the worst roommate on the planet. You may think I’m exaggerating, but someone has to be the worst, and I genuinely believe it was this guy. The university I’m at has an absurd policy regarding changing your roommate, and if yours isn’t actively plotting to murder you, you’re out of luck.”
“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.”
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.
“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.”
“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.”
“A layer of skin has been peeled away / Revealing what lies beneath me / Secrets exposing themselves / In the burning light”
“Anger and fear are very similar / they both lead to death / fear: the most powerful spark in history / anger: a flame that burns faster”
“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.”
“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.”
“‘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.'”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“The blue / sky shows your heart, / Shows you how to sing, / Lets you speak, / Teaches you to think, / Helps you be you.”
“There was a cute llama named Achoo. / He lived in the glorious Peru.”
“I know it’s you, / I can always tell, / when you show up at my door, / and lean on the bell.”
“My breath leaves clouds on the small window, / Dissipating to reveal fluffy clouds outside, / The wing of the airplane in which I sit.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“he’s always been good, / at throwing punches that land / in the shapes of bruises / on sandbags and plastic / play-pretend armor.”
“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.”
“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.”
“You looked at me, frustration exploding like fireworks all over your face
You couldn’t communicate your feelings to me”
“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.”
“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”
“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!”
“A piece of me is gone, severing the soul that is truly me
It’s like I’m a stranger to myself”
“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.”
“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.”
“Love reminds me of a shirt I made for my sister,
sweet candy yams.
Love is my sister at Coney Island at night”
“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’”
“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.'”
“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.”
“His fingers wrap /
around her neck. /
This necklace is /
the present no one /
asked for.”
“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. “
“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.”
“The static of a thousand rays
captured in the tear
of a heartbeat,
a silent scream ripping through the swallowed air.”
“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.”
“Yet all are lies,
but the fault lies not within our sense,
but within our mind
where we refuse to make amends.”
“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.”
“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.”
“i was called to the funeral, and i wore a yellow dress
to commemorate the color of her cheeks”
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.
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“the gods paint a psychedelic watercolor
on your window.”
“’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.’”
“This morning,
my broken dreams suddenly
appeared in my cupped hands.”
I’m trying to keep up with you on a trembling tundra
of crushed snow cones, dribbled with flavorings that’ve bled.”
“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.”
“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?!”
“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”
“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!”
“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”
“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.”
“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.”
“I don’t remember who was here
To celebrate throughout the years
I want to stay, although I know
My party ended long ago”
“She didn’t frown or make any gesture that would indicate unhappiness, her neutrality was in fact quite disconcerting.”
“He left without looking at me”
“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”
“The drying laundry seems
Like ghosts
The wind crying over mended seams.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Do not go anywhere near the fifth floor…”
“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.”
“As he walked through the grove for the second time that day, he felt truly lost.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“These woods have bewitched time.
The trees and knolls and rocks,
Statues of their former selves.”
“murmurs of commotion, excitement
the smell of stale
people and personalities
unintentional noise, ears popping
I’m sorry
I spilled my iced coffee on your shoes”
“The oranges are making me bananas
Yogurt is a weird word
Especially oranges, they make me go nuts
Is a berry a fruit?”
“As your aura fades from
your jacket,
your car,
my memory,
I have trouble recollecting
the time we had together.
Only hospital beds and funeral homes
seem to come to mind.”
“Tragedy struck the cast of Finding Bigfoot yesterday, as what was once a fabricated show preying upon the dementia of elderly conspiracy theorists quickly turned into an all-too-real nightmare, when in their fake search, they actually came across a Bigfoot-like creature.”
“It wasn’t silent, as nothing ever really is.
Moonlight lay on the waves
and hung in her tears.”
“My soul could’ve been violently ripped from my body as it crossed over, leaving the past behind. Would I have seen my dying body from above, clawing at my solid presence, desperately hanging on to the last bit of my small existence?”
“And that was the first time I was in love- I loved girls and I wanted boys, like the man who died amongst the bleached bone white sands, unable to chose between love and life, and so I starved”
“The gibbon boasted a polka-dotted bow tie; his velvety arms stretched outwards to hold a Bible. He was to be the officiator of this holy matrimony.”
“I haven’t slept in days. Last night, I was lying in bed, and I shut my eyes, and I cried. I cried because I miss you. I cried because I need you and because I’m hurting.”
“And if you come in there with fantastic hair, she’ll take one look at you– her fifth grade boyfriend– and dump Charlie right then and there, on his birthday and everything. Because she can’t hide her love for you any longer.”
“Sometimes, we’d just stall for a while. We never wanted to stop talking, but, we’d sometimes run out of things to say. We’d fill our conversations with padding, useless shit. Always keeping our eyes on the clocks, and then the minute it changed from 11:59 to 12 it was over.”
“Age is no longer a restraint here in Endgame. What matters is your experience. You have to fight to survive around here.”
“It’s spring break, and we’re in St. Pete Beach, Florida. My family and I are staying at the Don Ce Sar hotel, where my dad went with his dad and brother as a kid. The Don is everything I hoped it would be.”
“I am the voice that kills you.
I am the voice that seeps into your brain and tells you that you’re wrong. Whatever you’re doing
is wrong. You are wrong.”
“The girl with the map face has lived on my block since I moved here twelve years ago. She lives in a small two story house with a small one story tree in the front yard. I’ve never seen anyone else in her house. She must live alone. I wish I lived alone.”
“I never skip class. I’ve never just not gone to a class. Sure, I’ve taken “sick” days and days where I’ve actually been lying on my couch with a 102 degree fever, but skipping class? Coming in late? Never. Nada. Not happening.”
“The pads of fingers kiss and synchronize with gravel tunes
and smooth notes, quick meter
and bounce
snap
baby, do you wanna dance?”
“Bill woke up one morning and noticed he hadn’t quite realized how loudly his knees creaked before. He hadn’t noticed just how cold the hardwood floors got in the winter, hadn’t seen all the dirt on the windows. Had there even been any dirt, before Mae died?”
“Mayor Bloomberg recently prohibited the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces at movie theaters, food carts, and restaurants. Bloomberg has done this due to the rise in obesity. He believes that obesity has been a looming challenge for the nation as a whole, not just because of their health, but economically in paying for the treatments of diseases caused by obesity. Although these statements are true, I think the mayor is going a little too far.”
“Big Apple, Big dreams, Big debts. Big, vacant holes that she just couldn’t fill. Big, whopping tears, then finally, dry eyes in the desert. And now the soothing voice that enveloped her like a warm blanket.”