Reconnecting With Nature

Chloe Shaffield, Grade 10

Eos

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  

you were a summer thunderstorm

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 

Reconnecting With Self

Mary Carter Laney, Grade 10

Pages

1 ~Editor's Note~2The Dragon's Toe3George's 4Exotic Flavor5Paper Cutter 6Masked , Big Fish , A Plant , and Pass, Hit, Set 7The Stories of Colors 8The Lightning Monster9The Rainy Life of the Weather Named Stormy 10Tables, Reflection , Arachnid , and Distant Forest 11Discovery 12Etched Blossoms , Owl, City Scape , and Puppy 13Superior Species 14Those Butterfly Wings , Converse , Tunnel Vison, and A Cloud 15A Sea of Red 16Nebula Metro17Life of a Diary 18Flowers , Swan , Waves , and Grass 19The Dragon's Tooth 20The Girl in a Dress 21Burning Out , Blue Dot , A Southern Feminist's Manifesto , and Silhouette 22The Fire Kindling: Chapter 1 23The Perfect Student , Social Pressures , and The Perfect Student 2 24Patina Nightmare25Eventide26Creative Shutdown, Eye's Through A Looking Glass , Head on Collision , and Writer's Block 27The Road to the Championship 28Reconnecting With Nature , Eos , you were a summer thunderstorm , and Reconnecting With Self 29Senior Spotlight: Ava Muller, Photography, The Landing , Tranquil , One-eyed Flyer , Grief , Dreamer , Fractured , Breakin', Lost Lives , and Lilypads 30Senior Spotlight: Maggie Huffman, Digital Illustration , Nice to Meet You!, Exploration of "Circe", Surfs Up! , The Return of Morales , Companionship , Mandalorian , Ambush , Just Hangin', and The High Priestess 31Senior Spotlight: Jolie Stumpff, Poetry , Don't, Muse, Being a Boy , In Search of a Cosmos, Overstimulation , Wheels , and Final Moments32Playing Time Struggles, Head in the Game , Sky High , and Moment of Glory 33Pollination , Azure Afternoon , Creator of Color, and Elegant Emu 34One , Fido , Heart Handles , and Early Birds35Dedication: Katherine Berdy