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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Dear Readers, Congratulations to all the artists whose incredible pieces are featured in this edition –your hard work, talent, and love for your art is clear. As always, R&R is made possible by the dedication of our amazing sta , our advisor, Mrs. Batchelor, and the English and Fine Arts departments. ank you all so much for all that you do.

We are thrilled to present this 21st edition of R&R Creative Arts, which we are proud to say is our best edition yet. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Abigail Wells Editor-in-Chief

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Abigail, It has been an honor working with you for the past few years. You have always found a way to keep us on track while embracing our chaos. We have loved seeing you grow as a writer and as a person, and no one could have led this club like you. We’re so sad to lose you here, but UNC is gaining an incredible writer and an even better person, and we can’t wait to see what you do. Love,

e Rhyme & Reason Team

THE TEAM

Abigail Wells, Editor-in-Chief

Colin Welden, Associate Editor

Nathanael Adegoke

Andi Alexander-Smith

Catherine Busch Grace Roche

Cate Wasenaar

untitled // ben corley

I was very little on a bright sunny day. e grill was red up and the atmosphere was great. I walk around and hopefully don’t nd a snake. My mom was in the kitchen, sister upstairs in bed, as she felt not so good in the head. I keep walking but to an area I rarely see. I don’t know what it was, but a feeling hit me. I picked up a rock and threw it. All the luck I had I just blew it. e rock hit something but I couldn’t quite tell. So, I threw another one and said oh well. As soon as I knew it the nest was struck. Basically, I was in the road and here comes a truck. I didn’t know right then that I sealed my fate, but soon the hornets, started eating o their plate. 2 y up my shirt and start stinging, it hurt so bad my ears started ringing. I cry to my dad, and he runs to help. We get inside and I start to yelp. My dad opens my shirt and the 2 y out. Finally I was safe but for forever I pout.

birdcage // ollie courts

A bird is in a cage. A cage of bone.

“Don’t look.”

It is too bright to bear. Gleaming white ivory against a bloody backdrop e bird screams. e bird sings. e bird weeps.

“Don’t look!”

It calls, it cries, it smiles, laughs, hurts It is happy in the cage e bird has the keys Brass, bronze, bright, dark, rusted, shining. Keys to the locks put there by the bird itself.

“DON’T LOOK!”

e bird is red.

Red as blood, like sunsets, like hearts. Eyes, black as a soulless being. is bird is not a soulless being. Bones wrap its gentle form.

“YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO LOOK!”

Why did you look?

You shouldn’t have looked. You would have been happier never realizing. Never quite understanding. e bones holding the bird. Your bones holding the bird.

ank steak margaret reynolds

I saw you today and froze, Our memories ooding back, From that little box inside my heart I’d shoved them all into, You,

One of my rst friends, Who I loved,

You who invited me into your life, We played silly games and pretended to be people we weren’t, But it was ok because we had each other, I watched my rst scary movie with you, Wrote those stories, Danced, laughed, cried, We had those stupid ghts about nothing, And were always there for each other, Even when you had more friends than me, Were prettier than me, Cooler than me, You stuck by my side, You were my sister, And we were the best of friends, And then, like all good things, It ended,

Not in one fell swoop, Or the fast ripping of a band-aid that makes it hurt less because at least it’s over, No,

It was the slow dri ing apart, e subtleties, e quiet notes, And I noticed, but didn’t say anything, Because I really thought, You’d be better o without me, Some stupid, insecure part of me decided I was going to let you go, So I stu ed my childhood memories, Memories of you, Deep down and shut it out, And that summer, we just stopped, Our texts dried up, ose ridiculous school emails had stopped a long time ago, but this hurt more, You hung out with your other friends and I hung out with mine, And then it was over, It was so nal, Forever,

And maybe I’m being dramatic, Maybe you didn’t feel the same way, But those years of friendship will always mean something to me, If I’d never tried ank steak, who would I be today?

Oh God, I think I’ve died

My mind is spinning

An ache in my stomach

A er all I’ve done. A er what I’ve been through Really?

I did all you asked I was happy I promise. I found love. A purpose I had dreams No, I have dreams I’ve not gone yet I will ght.

e noise bounces back to me

I can hear you But can I hear You?

I spin in circles Is it just me? Do you want to be found I walk round and round Where did you go?

How did I become so lost?

All I can hear is your echo.

goodbye angel // grace roche

When tears of righteous fury seep from my eyes

And trace the hard lines of my face in agonizing stokes

You take your burning hand (burning white hot with crushing truth)

And TEAR my chest apart, cracking my ribs, pulling my skin, My white hot blood full of truths and lies drip down your hands, covering your arms down to the elbows like a second skin

And I watch as my blood turns you, your arm, your soul, g o l d e n

As the sun hits my blood, boiling and breaking me

Ichor pours from my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my every gap, tear, leak in this lousy body of mine

And as the heat melts the wax in my bones and my frame comes apart, feathers and blood and tears I SCREAM–(i scream).

I crack and creak and as I fall apart your eyes meet mine, two eyes, three eyes, one thousand eyes, staring into me into my heart into my soul

and I feel a part of me swell and burn bright white hot righteous fury- I try to scream but my mouth is no more. I try to cry, but my eyes are no more.

I try to reach out, for help, for you, for anyone. But my hands are no more.

And as my body crumbles to dust (for that is all I am, all I was, and all I shall return to)

My soul burns bright bright BRIGHT and my very being, my every ber of existence, WEEP, weep for you my dear: for you are all that is le of me.

e air feels really weird.

First we were all coughing. Now no one is. He’s teaching, but no one is listening. My lungs burn but he says it’s ok He says they’ll come for us

Listen to the lesson

My head droops as I ght to keep my eyes

I rest my chin on my st,

Elbow on the table, arm pointed towards the sky

Apparently I’m only Eloquent when high is poem is strange

gas leak // margaret reynolds

My breathing is forced

I must concentrate

My thoughts are slow, Muddled

My lungs are burning, Stinging, Makes me anxious He doesn’t seem a ected I want to go home I want to leave

Can I even call it that

My arm is buzzing I type my notes at didn’t rhyme ere was no pace at’s not sublime HELP ME LET US LEAVE

Hurry

19 more minutes I’m not scared anymore

Just tired I want to go home

He handed me my homework

My hands fumbled for the sheets ey feel big ick Heavy

I can taste acid burning the back of my throat if I

I want to call my mom

35 more minutes

My leg hangs from the chair, weighed down by gravity

It feels heavy and light It oats in the air

My bones are gone It feels like it at least I put my foot back on my chair

29 more minutes

I swing my legs around at doesn’t feel ok

Something is wrong with my appendages

He’s giving me a stare It is hard to type today

Why does no one care

I used to be happy all the time and things were easy Life was good

but as I got older it got harder to be happy all the time

I couldn’t figure it out

but even though it wasn’t perfect

I found my way again

Life is hard but it’s good

friend request // margaret reynolds

You tried to add me twice today, And I laughed

Because who do you think you are Erasing the past with a click of a button You, e victim, And I am the evil monster, Because you, oh innocent one turned all the people I hoped would be my friends into walls of ice, Who ignored me, Because you spread lies, at’s all you do, I see your patterns now, Now that I’ve escaped your claws, You want everything you cannot have, People you don’t like, status, people who don’t like you, Because you have this ridiculous need to win, And I feel sorry for you, Because you are pathetic, You really are, You are a worm.

And to the non-contextualized eye I must seem harsh, But you, e nameless one, e victim, Oh, You know who you are, I tried to be unfeeling, Uncaring, But I’m over it, I’m over you, You are a worm, You hurt me, But I’m over all of this, And I’m never adding you back.

broken crayons still color // ariel abernathy

If broken crayons still color, then why is my picture so dull?

e tip isn’t so sharp because the inside went dark.

No life to keep it going which is why the color stopped owing.

If broken crayons still color, then why is my picture still grey?

No blue to light up my sky or show the tears I continue to cry.

Broken crayons don’t color because if they did, I’d have a masterpiece.

A sketch perfectly cra ed from every broken piece in my box.

But the shadows of grey infect me like itchy chicken pox.

A sketch perfectly cra ed from every broken piece in my box.

But the shadows of grey infect me like itchy chicken pox.

If broken crayons still colored, I’d be the next Van Gogh. Every stroke would shine bright.

If broken crayons still colored, I’d be the next Van Gogh. Every stroke would shine bright. But if all my crayons are broken, is being a struggling artist still worth the ght?

despair \\ nathanael adegoke

nathanael adegoke

cyberworld

risingcontrast // nathanael adegoke

RISING CONTRAST

// nathanael adegoke

Letter to my freshman self, Dear me, I know it’s rough

BETTER

You went from middle school to high school and it all just seems too much

From state to state, People to people

ey’re di erent here, no southern accents, no horses or cows or tractors

From a small-town Southern gal to a Big city girl in Georgia

From the trailer park that I grew to know and love

To the biggest house I’ve ever seen

From chipping into family bills with the small, pink piggy bank

To living lavishly and carefree

It’s a change, for sure.

e change is hard, especially challenging knowing that what we went through,

Computers and online school and lockdown.

Me knowing absolutely nobody in this state, getting bullied (already, really?)

We spend freshman year in hard shells hiding away from the fear and humiliation caused by the people who don’t understand our past

It gets better, I promise.

Letter to my sophomore self, is year we spent apologizing to the people whom we didn’t keep in contact with

Well, I also spent it making friends, I spent this year breaking out of my shell, spent it trying not to fall apart with my past coming back to haunt me

Learning algebra 2 (never again) And guring out that friends aren’t actually cruel

Learning there are in fact people on our side

I spent this year healing, learning to deal with the pain e panic attacks, the overdue homework, the PTSD, I spent this year happy.

I got to show someone love and compassion, feeling the way my skin tingles when I hear them laugh I got to live

For the rst time in 9 years, I lived. I blasted music in the car while watching my friends cringe at the fact it was Taylor Swi

Backstage watching shows and my face lighting up I watched Euphoria(and cried a lot)

Invited people over for the rst time in 9 years I am nallyliving.

It was better, I promise. kennedy

BETTER

Letter to my junior self, We’re so close to leaving So close to no longer dealing

With the gruesome hours of work, it’s cruel e powerful exhaustion caused by high school Driving cars, and crashing them

And a homecoming party I was not invited to I went quiet, almost silent Spent days half awake and unaware of the powerful e ects that come with unpopularity

I loved this year, and hated too But I found out high school is so much less cruel en I originally thought Work became easy, I slept more, I ate more And realized AP classes Are advanced placement for a reason learned that being happy doesn’t come with another person

And yet again, I lived. It got better, I promise.

Letter to my fellow soon-to-be seniors, ank you for these years, you have taught me so much ese four years of life that we have come to see as something hard, something beautiful, something wholesome and painful Something necessary to move on from the past to the future Leaving home and traveling far away

Yet during these years you were all so worried about being seen with me Because of the non-stop laughing e “wereyouhangingoutwithher?” it’s not like it mattered much to me

I’m not popular

I’m not well known But it mattered to you

I am glad to never be here again Your words didn’t hurt me, they were a re ection of you

Your faces are ones I cannot wait to forget e good memories, however, will never leave my mind

And that’s okay

I’ll be moving on from your opinions of me and becoming myself And nally, truly living Free from you

I’m better, I promise.

untitled // nathanael adegoke

untitled // ben corley

is is a poem about gratitude. My sister sometimes has lots of attitude. But I don’t mind I still love her because she is kind. Sometimes we argue and heart is hard to nd. But she is my sister and that will always be de ned. My sister is leaving for college soon and that’s ok. I will just have to see her again another day.

plagiarized // jezel carmon

how would you feel if I claimed what wasn’t mine? and then wear the mask that grins and lies (WeWearthe Mask–PaulLaurenceDunbar)

if my thoughts are too dry to form my own, will I be reprimanded for what I stole?

if I do this too well, you may instantly believe because it’s not easy to know what is true for you or me ( emeforEnglishB–LangstonHughes) you won’t be able to tell what came from others and the ease of it all will allow me to not su er

no one could stop me anyway, it’s all in good fun what’s out is out, what’s done can’t be undone (Macbeth–WilliamShakespeare) and is it really wrong when it turns out so smooth? even if you see it and claim not to be a fool

you’re too oblivious to see what’s true is there a problem, does my sassiness o end you? (StillI Rise–MayaAngelou) in the end this will still be submitted and in the end, I’ll still be acquitted

if you couldn’t tell what was mine, that means I will succeed and argument is pointless, there is no need (Home–Rupi Kaur)

so, thank you for reading, this was all too great but I do apologize, you completely took the bait

steve marine poetry contest winner

L I N E S jezel carmon

when we try to t between the lines it may become apparent that it’s hard to nd, a place that perfectly situates all we are without the hate.

if the boxes are breached, then opportunities fall out of reach and everything that is sought can only be obtained through methods that are bought.

how are we meant to discern from what is yearned and the reality we have amassed to keep us from being outcast.

and you may not actively discriminate, but the features you seek are not ones with which we commonly associate. so, we try to nd a way to change, to t your gaze of what seems great.

but since i can’t change how i was born, i will continue to mourn, mourn the boundaries that i will never t into and resolve to think that i can x it for you.

but it is still too few and far between always an outlier and never the mean. the di erences so prominent that they can’t be ignored and then we change them to reap the reward.

the world would be rounder if we le it alone. and our skin would be perfect without attention to tone. but seeing is believing, and perception is reality.

so, choosing to be blind is not the answer but acknowledging what fall shorts might show grandeur.

Death has many names

Some are mean

Some are kind

Call it Mercy

A time away from the ever-repeating cycle that is Life

Truly, Death is a Mercy

Is it a freefall into an eternal abyss?

ere isn’t much of a di erence between freefall and ight

Is Death a one-way ticket to a place without light?

Or is it a break from feeling you try to forget?

Sometimes I call it Pain.

A way to escape from a reality I never asked to take part in

A way to escape the spiral

When Life is nothing but numbness

Pain is a merciful feeling

In over my head

No one ever taught me to swim

And I’m too scared to ask for a lifeline

If drowning lls my lungs with water

Life lls them with Regret

What do you call Death?

mercy//olliecourts

hands open, palms exposed

“What matters isn’t the fact that they’re gone, what matters violence are going to rip at hands, exposing palms to the ese bad moments are going to happen, and I need to let like butter ies on a whim to the nearest ower, but from how much I want that butter y to stay I must keep my hands war against my mind to pull the hope close, to hold it dear feelings, for if I decide to close my hands I might crush that and I will follow, collapsing to earth like and un nished symphony nishing this one. Finishing the hope I crushed. No, I need to ght for that light inside of me to keep my palms extended towards the sky just in case the world forgot it had bent on protecting the idea of something temporary, keep take from me, take from me, take all I have, so that maybe something le to o er. Although you took them too, the others silent hill I stand upon.

I am not blind, you are not heartless, you take like the ocean You take from my hand so that you may give, I give so that the planet and as closely as a hug to a child. I give my life Palms hung in the space of eons, stamped with the mark is de ned by how much you give, only cracks may remain, that you need. don’t worry about me.

I have more.”

exposed // catherine busch

matters is how long they chose to stay.” Death, pain, and earth from which I come, and I need to let them bleed. let them, keep my hands open, beauty stamped into them the way they came, they must always return. No matter hands open, the human greed and fear inside me waging dear next to my capacity for jealousy. I must abolish those that hope, delicate as a summer breeze it will grow weak, symphony because that musician lost all hope on palms raised, keep them open for me, keep them had something le to take. I stand tall, tall as a century keep my hands up, palms exposed, so maybe the fates will maybe you will forget about the others whom might have others are somewhere else, somewhere better than this ocean to the sky, but you also give like the sun to the earth. that you can give. Generously, beautifully, like the sun to so that you can give yours. of time, only cracks remain. e value of the life you live remain, but I rejoice in fact that I had so much to give. “Take all

in the shadows

I NEEDED YOU ghost, disappearing in the sha-dows, Where were you? When I was blue? Here? With Me? Vrai ou faux? bellicose I’m angry!

I’m annoyed (that)

I have to trick, and manip (ulate) you all the time to get you to call— and that? at’s messed it is.

shadows // margaret reynolds trick, (ulate) messed up,

Why do you dislike me so are we friends?

Vrai ou faux?

All I know, I’m all alone.

ere’s a new patient on the ward planning to take over

Accustomed to being the top man

Everyone’s thunderstruck

ey treat this guy di erent but he is di erent, he is dominating He can in uence the other patients, disrupt them, pull them out of the fog He’s dragging us out of the fog till we stand there

Something strange is going on here, he’s nding it out

He’s quite a disturbing in uence He may have found the key about things that go on here

No ordinary man

He is simply a shrewd con man ick red hair arms and scarred hands

e Combine hasn’t got to him all these years

He’s not going to let them twist and manufacture him now

McMurphy lures us out of the fog doing the smart thing

She has a loose weave, he can see right inside it Got the best of the Big Nurse

McMurphy had things his way for a good while Made things on the ward pretty interesting

through the fog // bev benedict

His loose smile spread on his face as he watched the doctors’ trance

He got everyone feeling as cocky as ghting roosters showing us what a little courage could do

Good-natured voice spilled out his life

A life for us to live, for all of us to dream ourselves into He worked us into a better mood pulling us out of the fog.

McMurphy is a giant Growing bigger than ever up there, growing into a legend

He is making the most of his time in here Come here to save us from the Combine

He’s a very sharp operator, levelheaded ings are di erent from before that damned redhead came along

He’s nobody’s fool Not worried about anything

McMurphy made me big again and pulled me out of the fog

i wish // colin welden

I wish, sometimes, for impossible things

I wish for take-it-back’s and what-if’s and tryagain’s and do-over’s and better

I wish I knew how to laugh without it sounding fake

I wish for smiles from strangers and smiles from friends and smiles from strangers who aren’t friends, yet

I wish for are-you-okay and yes, and it’s the truth

I wish people looked back a er goodbye I wish and I wish and I wish Until I run out of stars

ere’s a Hunger in my bones

It has eaten my heart (my heart)

Picked the meat clean from my ribs

It has drained my blood – every last drop

Unburned me of my lungs

Torn out my (in)sides and made them

My out(sides)

Forcing me down, hunching me over Filling me with an everlasting aching pain

Cold, pale hands reach into–

Into the gash, the tear in my chest

And they s c r a p e my soul from my body

For my spine has become a ruined battle eld Leaving me nothing but an empty, hollow, Shell

shell // grace roche

the love of war // ollie courts

People don’t o en realize how similar love and war are. e Greeks did. With the lover and the ghter, Aphrodite and Ares. ey understood that they were meant to be together,

Unable to have one without the other. War and love, love and war. Twins, a mirror re ection, Much like their sons, Deimos and Phobos Fear and Panic. All interwinded, intertwined. Coiled, claws dug into each other. Panic in love, fear in war.

courts

Still seen when reversed, switched all the same.

e fear of “does she like me?”

Panic and love simultaneously felt. Even when love is strongest, War can erode it, break it down like a wall. Love can stop wars just as easily. Light and dark.

ey realized that Hephaestus could not be with Aphrodite. You cannot create love arti cially, Cannot work it logically. Just… feel.

ere is no map to love, Nor is there a perfect battle. You cannot have one without the other. Balance will always be created naturally. is includes love and war.

i don’t write poetry anymore andonia alexander-smith

I remember a time simpler and full of life when rivers owed and the stars glowed high above in the sky when birds sang and the woods rang with the rustling of the spring breeze but now thunder booms and darkness looms my heart pounds as a siren sounds the sky grays as my clothes fray and I don’t write poetry anymore

anymore // alexander-smith

ere are days when I don’t think of you

When your ghost neglects to haunt my mind I no longer hear your voice calling my name And the details of your face have le me behind I can close my eyes without seeing your face I don’t cry over photos of us anymore I can go to sleep without thinking you’re there My fantasies don’t include you showing up at my door It’s been a year since they lowered you into the ground

colin welden

But only now are you nally dead I won’t think of you tomorrow Stay out of my head.

time of my life // nathanael adegoke

i’m just tired // ariel abernathy

Maybe it’s just how my brain is wired. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.

“Don’t worry, I’m just tired”

Dragged by the day feeling completely uninspired. know the world has color but my eyes only see grey. Maybe it’s just how my brain is wired.

My only motivation is to avoid being red. what should I say when they ask if I’m okay?

“Don’t worry, I’m just tired”

My mind desires to be admired. Fighting for the right things to say. Maybe it’s just how my brain is wired.

I could complete all the tasks my life required. Just like Superwoman saving the day.

“Don’t worry, I’m just tired”

What if my time has expired. One can only hope and pray. Maybe it’s just how my brain is wired.

“Don’t worry, I’m just tired”

I don’t recognize my friends anymore they look like my enemies lines blur faces warp

I feel nothing I like it that way

shadows take form and prey on the lonely, the hurt, and the lost

help is hopeless, hope is helpless no one has the words to ask for either

ickering lights hide in dark corners and wonder who will care when they burn out the brightest lights are snu ed out the loudest shouts go silent no one feels anything anymore

and everyone wonders how could this have happened

but I can’t believe we’re all so surprised

i can’t believe we’re all so surprised // colin welden

a watching face // andonia alexander-smith

Since time began, you have been there. A silent, omnipresent observer, and an ever-reliable servant. You count the seconds, the minutes, the hours, and the days, until one day your feeble ticking will stop. In days passed, the sun set your silvery face aglow, and your golden body twinkled under the stars. But those times are long gone; now you rest, lying forgotten on a co ee table, wondering at how quickly time could change.

Your life began in the nimble ngers of smooth hands, peering up at a face for whom death was still unknown. You were only one of many, a single watch in a sea of gold. But even through countless years, the only wrist you ever glimpsed was his. He carried you with him to meetings of business, an endless ow of wrinkled faces with close cropped hair, bushy white mustaches, silvery round spectacles, black caps, tailored suits.

His face was di erent; his expressions grew cold and drab while his once vibrant hair rapidly receded from his scalp. Until one day, everything changed. Her face was spring to his endless winter, a beam of sun in a storm. When she was around, his face was lighter, brighter, more jovial, and youthful. Life became fresh and new once again, and for a while, he was happy. And you were happy.

Suddenly, life took a turn for the worse. Rosy skin turned ashen and gray, eyes that once shown bright became overcast and gloomy. But, nonetheless, you remained close to him through it all. He coughed heavily, and his tears smeared on your once immaculate glazed face. Death, which had once been so far away, was nally nearing. You could see the weakness in his face, and, at the end, the understanding in his eyes. You hugged his wrist as he took his last breath.

A er a time, a face appeared. Years prior, her face had brought joy and light; but now it cast only a dark shadow. You clutched hard at his arm, but her grip was too strong. Instead of the warmth of a body, you felt the iciness of oak wood. For the rst time in decades, you were alone. You relished for a moment in the peacefulness of silence, only for it to quickly end.

New hands grasped at you, ngers rough and calloused. His face was younger, smoother, with an eagerness that, previously, you had never seen before. You felt a pang of sadness for your old friend that was now lost, but also a rising feeling of excitement as you pondered what the next life would bring.

Like a falling leaf

Waiting for the time to come

When I reach the ground

waiting // jackson burns

I want to help I’ll be there soon I hit every red light

Took the wrong turn

But I’m still here

Open the door

please?

I look

To an endless With clouds

to the sky

endless blue expanse

clouds looking back

sky //

jackson burns

the place // colin welden

Check your expectations at the door

Leave your preconceptions behind is is the place where all are equal is is the place where no one hides

Forsake your pristine presentation

ere’s no need for suit and tie

For here the widow cracks a smile

And the jokester dares to cry Every face her is a stranger

So abandon all your fear Leave your mask behind you

No one knows you here

history // ollie courts

I will not be remembered in history

People will not speak my name, voices lled with honor and reverence

Minds lled with choices of mine, made long ago

People shall not build temples, great undertakings of backbreaking work in my memory

I do not wish to be remembered in history

A millennium of discussions of my successes and failures

My aws and insecurities e lies, the truth, in hindsight, are one and the same

History is written by the victors, therefore history, is lled with lies

I do not wish to be the liar

I will not be remembered in history

I will not be discussed at length for failures long past

If I am remembered in history, immortalized forever,

It will not be the truth erefore, I will not be remembered in history.

untitled // andi alexander-smith

you’re so // anonymous

You’re so brave.

You introduce yourself with a handshake and a smile, and your voice doesn’t hitch at all. You tell people who you are like it’s nothing. Everyone sees you the way you are. You’re so con dent. You make the rst move. You don’t hesitate over the little things. Everyone likes you.

You’re so strong. You got out of bed today. You even le your house.

Some days you can even let yourself forget. You’re so happy. When do I get to be you?

For I have But Now

unknown sea // andi alexandersmith

For the longest time, I have waited on the shore of a turbulent sea.

An unknown realm, with unknown creatures and faces. have heard the howling of the wind, the crash of the waves on rocks

But never made it past the sand. Why do I falter? Do I fear the water to be cold, the ocean merciless? is I know the sea to be…

But is it not also full of life with joys hidden below crystal blue waves?

Now the time is late, and a ship awaits to take me to a new realm of possibilities…

ere is only the sound of us bawling

A dull streetlight casts its light onto the pavement

e rain keeps on steadily falling

Hollow faces hidden away are so ly calling

Haughty laughter echoes from the basement ere is only the sound of us bawling

Cold ngers reach for the open air as the spiders

Floorboards creak to show their discontentment

e rain keeps on steadily falling

A demon disguised in the dark is mauling

Reverberations of Hell are felt to the battlement

ere is only the sound of us bawling

e haunt is here, no time for stalling

But how can we act when our deaths are imminent?

e rain keeps on steadily falling

e lifeless body of a friend lies before us, its head

We shall soon join him in Hell, where we await ere is only the sound of us bawling e rain keeps on steadily falling

spiders are crawling discontentment

betrayal at the house on the hill // andi alexander-smith

imminent?

head lolling

await our punishment

Love

A blessing in disguise

We never know when it’s truly there

And we always take it for granted

Teachers, friends, family ey all have it for us

We all need it

Whether we choose to believe it or not

We can’t live without it

Sometimes the toughest people Have the most of it

Sometimes the meanest people

Need the most of it

It can be expressed in many ways

Actions, words, gestures ey all show it

No matter what you do It still means something

We need more of it in the world

And most people don’t know that Next time your sad or mad

Show love for the people around you.

love// ren jackson love // ren jackson

rainy day// ren jackson rainy day// ren jackson

Sad, gloomy, sunless Rainy days are no fun

Cooped up in the house all day

No sunlight no vitamin d

No one likes rainy days they’re just a part of life not the most exciting thing but you can’t do anything about it

sitting inside watching tv eager to be outside

just waiting till you can soak up the sun and go hang out with your friends nally, that last drop of rain hits the ground splash a rainbow comes out and it’s time to go back outside to soak up that sun and have some fun