To have the friends you've always wanted, you must become the friend you always wanted. 
    To be like the person you admire, you have to first realize that it's impossible. 
    To live your life to the fullest, you must have an anchor to hold onto in the devestaing storms.

Butterflies whirled and danced in my stomach as though they were Monarchs migrating to Maine.
   I exhaled a shaky breath and pulled into the college parking lot, which was already bustling with cars. 
   Checking my slot number for the hundredth time, I slowly came to a halt between the bold, white lines. My hand shook as I set the brake, and checked my pale reflection in the rear-view mirror.
   Well now, Darcy, here you are. I...

"I can't."
Do poetry?
Write verses with
rhyming words 
in nonsense symbols
called English?
The words:
beautiful artworks
or spilled ink?
Fragile emotions
thrown wildly
dominating
dainty paper:
or are they?
Strike the match
light the lantern
learn.
Read it again.
"I can."

My World came crashing,
The water came rushing,
The land is falling,
As my world comes apart,
I miss the simple bliss I had,
I never thought this,
This would end so bad,
And so these words go leaping,
Leaping into the Void,
The Void that is consuming them,
The Void that is consuming me,
The Void that already ate my heart,
And my World comes crashing down,
Down all around,
I am numb,
I feel so dumb,
You yanked...

I still love you,
I can't help it,
You drive me insane,
All I do is think of you,
And what we could've been,
But you don't want me anymore,
You didn't say that,
But I know...
It's okay,
I'm just broken,
It's okay...
I'm just shattered,
It's okay...
I'm just here,
Barley existing at all,
You could never have wanted me,
And no one ever could,
I'm a well of emotions,
I could care less,
I'm here,
And I'm...

I can hear the familiar dripping of the faucet. The clink against the metal basin. Dripping out of the narrow tube, just like the tears that drip out of the corners of my eyes.
I can feel the constant press of the cold against my face. The harsh wind pressing against my cheek bones, just like my eyelashes fall over my eyes. Tired and blurry. 
I can hear the crack of lightning up in the sky, signifying a storm. Just...

Dark,
endless dark,
do you remember light?
I don't
 
Bright 
endless light
Fight with all your might 
and we will re-unite 

What to do
What to do
i'm not like you

I can't make a decision 
in the blink of an eye
sometimes I've got to look up at the sky

I can't pick and choose 
who'll win and lose
I can't even keep up with the news

But when I choose
I'll take my time 
then maybe i'll earn a dime 

I won't rush in 
I know where I've been 
I will make sure I win

And If I don't ...

I don't mean anything, but I do.
Good night, sleep tight, I'll see you in the morning!
Don't matter if you're mother, son, or boo...
I want a hug. So long! For now I will be waiting.

   "Do you love me?" She asks her voice soft barley above a whisper.
                He takes my hands pulling her into his warm embrace. She smiles into his soft flannel, holding him closer, not yet ready to let him go. She waited for his answer hoping for the worst when she pulled away. He looked at her smiling before kissing the top of her hair, softly breathing in her scent of lavender...

I wrote about you again. You filled my mind, my heart, my soul. You made me happy to be me. I finally understood what people were talking about when they said their life was better than their dreams. It was something that I didn't think I'd ever understand. I knew it was you. It was you that I wanted to wake up to every morning. It was you that I wanted to sing not only to but with. You were...

“Daddy?”

“Mmyes Katie?”

“What are you doing now?”

“I’m pasting some spreadsheet data onto my document for work. What are you writing, my dear?”

“I’m uhh, doing the times and divide things on my notebook. I don’t like it, Daddy. I don’t like doing the times and divide because I can’t remember what 9 times anything is! And that means I can’t remember what anything divided by 9 is! Also we just learned what these are called, there’s a number...

    Embers crowd the foggy air as the midnight breeze layers our skin with uncertainty. Amora grasped my right arm in her tight embrace as if letting go meant she would lose me forever. The silent atmosphere of the forest was overpowered by the rhythm of our heartbeats. Distant howls stopped all of our movements completely. As we waited for more cries of hungry animals hunting their prey, Amora huddled closer to me, her chest pressed against my side.
    Judging by...

When Lila saw the lamp switch on through the living room window, her hands began to shake. She reached for her house key, unsure if she wished to unlock the front door. Lila was not afraid of the unknown; rather, she feared who she knew would be there. 

I push stringy red hair out of my face and lean into the toilet again. My stomach lurches and I gag as a putrid scent fills my nose. I vomit violently and groan, taking a deep breath. After I finish getting rid of my past thousand meals, I push away from the metal toilet. I stay in the bathroom for the next ten minutes, pressing my face against the cold floor. Once my nausea fades, I slowly sit up, cradling...

        Alice Currie bit her lip and tried her best to keep from tapping her foot as Mrs.Blois's keen eyes scanned her coffee- stained resume. She knew her recommendations had been glowing, and her degrees numerous. But all the recommendations, diplomas, and coffee stains couldn't cover the incident. Alice knew that.  Mrs. Blois's eyes narrowed as she reached the bottom of the fifth page of the paper, and Alice's gut squeezed. A numb pang shot through her as she...

I write so that one day I might eventually be able to shed some light on the horrible things that have been happening, and so that we can have a reason to believe in the world again. It seems to me that is has become all too easy to see others as less than people. What am I to you? Just another follower, a like on social media, a complement giving piggy bank...? Since when have we stopped being people...

Jack came home. I think we were a bit surprised, because at that point we didn’t know if he ever would. I can’t seem to look him in the eye. I feel like if I do, I’ll find something there, something I don’t like, something I can’t explain away. There’s something different about him. He seems so happy, so normal, as if all of this is the same as it was. He’s always been the type to take it in...

  *Warning: this piece contains some violence, profanity, and possible crude humor.*


  I set my bag down against a spray-painted section of wall and watched some kids gather around my edge of the parking lot. I scanned the group. They wanted to watch a fight. They were hungry for it. But first, there was business to attend to.
    This was the back side of the school so it took a minute for everyone to arrive. I let the...

        Alice Currie bit her lip and tried her best to keep from tapping her foot as Mrs.Blois's keen eyes scanned her coffee- stained resume. She knew her recommendations had been glowing, and her degrees numerous. But all the recommendations. Alice knew that. And Mrs. Blois was about to know. Mrs. Blois's eyes narrowed as she reached the bottom of the fifth page of the paper, and Alice's gut squeezed. A numb pang shot through her as she knew...

Head down between my knees.
I can see your feet under the crack in the stall but I know nobody is really
out there (not in a way that counts).
Public bathrooms are a haven sometimes

Hey
Mr. Star.
I have a wish
Maybe two
And I hear
That you're the guy
To go to.

Mr. Star
Can you take away the hunger
In the bellies of the people
Who have nothing
To eat
Or call their own.

Mr. Star
Can you stop
The people from fighting
With guns
And words?
I know they aren't all bad.

Mr. Star
Can give you a quarter?
Why?
Because,
I need you to fly across the sky
And give it...

Touch:
It is so humid that nothing can enter your skin. The cracks that usually let in the sunlight, sound waves, the cold or the dust are clogged up with water and barricaded from the outside world. What's outside stays out, what's inside stays in. It feels like you are stewing inside yourself but there are no holes you can make to let the universe pass through you again.

Sound:
There are so many layers of sound, (which you are...

Baby, you are soda-pop and candid smiles,
Your voice as mellow as a crackling campfire,
Word choice spluttering across others canvas',
Everyone who is blind dresses you within the silk of your hair,
reminding, "you are off to do something great."

But you're still a work in progress,
"Hard to get", copper hearts snicker,
as they pour their spirit into shot glasses.

They're right. You are hard to get.
Never playing a game,
staying out of chambers that echo,
keeping the change from...

The best sickness is bred in the first blink of morning
Mouthing “Don’t wanna throw up.” (please)

"She is no longer me"
I (pleading) promise.
If only to convince the nausea of my self-development.
I am no longer empty enough to make haste with my heaving
Though, I promise I am not still sick.
With hair glued to Her neck, I am just tasting the porcelain.

"She is gone" 
I (oppressive) promised
since so far is the bottom. (but so...