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Desired
By Malakhi Tanner, 17, Michigan I wanted so dearly to run forward, to steal myself a purpose, but feared grasping at hanging, tawdry fruit—rotten produce, neglected offspring of the tree.…
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What Is This Feeling
Maybe it's Monachopsis, The feeling of being out of place. Or Athazagoraphobia, The fear of being left or abandoned.
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Intense Emotions
being abandoned feels like mourning a death
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Her Skirt (a trio of vignettes)
A bit of pink. A bit of tulle. A bit of floof. I grab the fabric as it poofs up from the yellow cover of the bouncy bed.
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The Flip Side
If only you saw the flipside The other side of the me that you see.
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At Ease
At six months old I started to pick out my own clothes. My face would light up when my mom opened my closet for me. She would hold me up…
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As I Await My Departure
As I await my departure I drum my fingers on the desk I’ve made home.
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If you’re reading this…
If you’re reading this, plant some flowers. As each academic break nears, I begin to excitedly anticipate returning home. I always miss my family, my farm, and my community. Duke…
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Dear Mother
dear mother, my magical cocoon, the safe haven within the walls of childhood where rose-tinted flowers grew beside hope-laden trees,
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Winter
I hated winter. I spent 17 years of my life dreading the end of fall because I knew what would come next and I hated every second of it.
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Worn and Torn
He sits alone atop the hill at Port Clyde, wondering when will someone come? Deep into rotting depression,
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Self Interest
What novelty is there in another’s heart? What new skies are there in another’s eyes? Perhaps it’s because my own bosom
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Smiles and Tears
I’ve forgotten how to smile. My muscles get cramped after too many pretenses. It’s easier to just loosen the upward tension.
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The Fall Effect
I haven’t written or read in a while because it’s fall. Fall is when the days sharpen their coldness and twist you around with their breath.
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The Doomed Dancer
By Erin Costello, 15, Florida Skin draped over stark bone, Twisting and turning alone. A lone dancer, an abandoned stage, Their gazes trap her like a cage She spins and…
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And when the clock tolls twelve…
I’m a princess, bejeweled and dressed in the finest silks. Still, blood stains my fine evening gloves.
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Book of Ghosts
The book of change watches me rage as its pages turn of their own accord like a scornful clock endlessly ticking, sending me to the ground in a freefall of…
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Why I Quit Social Media and Can’t Go Back
In November 2021 I made a change. Sitting in my stinky dorm room (because let’s be honest, all dorm rooms smell so bad), I deleted social media apps. Systematically, one…
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A Daily Nightmare
No one sees him, No one hears him. But he always lives among us Patiently waiting and waiting.
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Life?
What is life? Just one more breath? The process of being, before you are dead? The presence of pain, So you know that it’s real, Or the dull empty depth,…
