Strong

Lila Abruzzi ’22

Life’s hard: everyone fights a battle.

Everyone gets knocked down, facing the mud coughing up blood.

Life hurts but you get back up, You wade through the blood soaked tears, so you do not drown in them.

You push harder, ahead, ahead, in hopes of forgetting and moving on, but the scars stay like rivers running deep through your soul. And it hurts, life hurts. It makes you want to cry up to the sky and beg for something to change.

But it cannot change, you don’t get change. You can’t afford to dwell on the past. You don’t deserve to.

You push harder, day by day, keeping the puzzle pieces together.

You are strong.

Forest Vibes

Lydia Scharer ’23

Nevertheless She Persisted

Perin Fine ’23

Star Crossed

Lydia Scharer ’23 & Avery Schneider ’23

Firework: Aster

Kesariya Nallari-Jhala ’23

My Name

Perin Fine ’23

My name is the rip of a snack bag in the refrigerator light

My name is the sound of pencils scratching down notes during science class

My name is the soft sizzle when the pancake batter hits the pan

My name is the shapes on the ceiling, telling stories through the plaster

My name is the green mountains I wait all year to see, but are so worth it when I get there

My name is the horseshoe prints along those mountains, made from journeys before us

My name is the missing board game pieces, lost with memories of words shared while playing

My name is the crackle of potato chips while sitting at the splintered wood table

My name is the marks in my hair after a night with a hair tie in

My name is the holes in my running shoes, made from hours practicing on hard gravel

My name is the grains in the hardwood floors of my over-decorated bedroom

My name is the posters and pictures covering the walls that go with those floors