Chloe Shaffield, Grade 10
Lucine Carsen, Grade 10
First slivers of chariot wheels and she is summoned
Young men’s faces are embalmed by her blush
Kindled into fires by her oil-painted smile
Her plush fingertips are warm and rosy
Still glowing from the forever weight of thunderbolts
Each nail leaves traces of ice in the clouds
Her toes calloused from the eternal journey, her heels as frigid as hell
With each step she treads on knives,
Lifted across the rainbow vapors she must not touch
Her bones are brittle, but her glow hides the greenstick breaks
She is their doll to undress from sunrise
Chartreuse lip-gloss glosses over her scars
Fuchsia silk dreams away her face
As they hide her ash-dark irises, her unfathomable pupils, from Helios’s light
Ghost bones, doll bones,
Crystalline calcium so beautiful, as in so frail
Too frail to pry from an iron grip
The iron grip of man
A man who had breathed in her charms and consumed her strength
Men who had dressed her in iced golden shackles and stolen her everything
And now she must trail in the wake, must obey
Must hide her spearhead barbs with sunlight and stardust
Must warm the doll bones of little boys with shreds of her own icy soul
But somewhere beneath the paintstrokes there is a murmur
An echo that tells her to wash it all away
Arden Campbell, Grade 11
you were a summer thunderstorm
The hazy Summer days – rolling across the sky
Days are getting longer- near time to say Goodbye
How dreadful the clouds above- Choking out the lights
Watching you watch the storm I think-
How sad to watch the Dark cover the pink
And purple streaks that usually Paint the Sky
I worry too about the twinkling-blinking Stars
And the reddish body of Martial Mars
That are Smothered by the Thunder clouds
But through all the Darkness that we Saw-
I’m distracted by the Shadows on your jaw
And the Reveries within your lips
Then- just as Zeus slashes across the skies-
I see the Truth reflected in your eyes-
It Hurts
Of all the Stars within the wine-dark Night
You shine most Brilliantly and Bright-
Yet you are Not the star for me
I take a breath- this Revelation is too much-
Knowing then for sure I can never Touch
The Super Novas of your fingertips
I’ve been holding on to you for so Long
That my fingers have gone Numb- I was wrong-
I could Never really have you
And now I see the Destruction I’ve left in your wake
I’ve Given for so long but all you do is Take-Take-Take
And now I am all Alone
I have Wasted away at the Altar of You
And now the Rot has taken over the pews
And the bread is stale- the wine is soured
What have I done? What did I do?
I broke Myself to fit into You-
Why didn’t you stop me?
Zeus weeps tears of golden ichor
As my Love for you begins to Flicker -
But yet- I’ll Always love you
Mary Carter Laney, Grade 10