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Design High School’s Literary Magazine Vol. 3, No. 1 / 2021-2022

THE LIT TEAM

Tehra Hamid

Shazia Rahman

Gia Shah

Kelly Shi

Ariah Swift

Lexy Yanos

With additional help from Ariful Ajmir and I Asia Coby

Cover art by Marlen Sosa

Orphious TEHRA HAMID

I’m Never Alone

YULIZA GONZAGA VELIZ

I’m never alone. At least not anymore. I lived with my mom in a pretty big house because of her new rich boyfriend. I never got to meet him. She always hid me away when he came and usually left me in this house alone. I didn’t understand why she hid me from him. I tried to ask but she wouldn’t give me a clear answer. So I would usually be alone until she came back. We weren’t really rich until my mom got a new rich boyfriend. But even then she still wouldn’t buy me any toys to at least keep me company. I was bored in this house, being left with nothing to play with. Until one day mom came to me and told me to get dressed. “We’re going on a walk,” she said. I was excited that I was finally leaving the house. Maybe this was an early gift for me since my 6th birthday was coming up soon. But it didn’t matter, cause I was finally getting to spend some time with my mom. I came down wearing a simple pink dress that had long sleeves and wore a purple sweater so it could match the purple socks I was wearing. And some black shoes. My mom was waiting near the entrance of the door, she wore a gray jacket with black pants. With her hair in a braid, like always. “Let’s go,” she said. I hesitated, grabbed her hand and she looked down and smiled at me, gently squeezing my hand. My house was near a forest but I have never gone through it. My mom decided to take a walk through the forest. It was so calm. The trees gently swung back

Lit by Design Contest 2nd Prize Winner!

I’m Never Alone (continued)

and forth, the sky was dark, a gray color with not the sun not in sight. Calm yet chilling. But luckily I had my mom with me, so it was okay because I was right by her side. We walked on a path, I didn’t know how long we'd been walking. This whole time my mom had been quiet. We were surrounded by big trees and everywhere I turned it was only trees. Not a house or any person in sight. I was about to ask my mom something when we suddenly stopped. “Stay here. I have to go do something at home. I'll be back in a while”. “ I can go with you,” I said. She turned and looked at me. She kneeled and with a soft smile she told me “ It’s alright, i want you to stay here. I promise I will be back as soon as I can. I want you to be here where there's fresh air instead of you being in the house all day”. “I-'' but before I could say anything she gave me a bag. “Here’s some food and water and an extra blanket just in case”. She then hugged me and looked at me with a smile but it looked like a more guilty smile than a genuine smile. Then she got up and started walking away without saying anything. “ I love you mom. I’ll be waiting here till you come back” I said to her. She paused for a moment but didn’t say anything and just kept walking. Not before long she was out of my sight. The only company I had now were the trees and it’s noise it made while the wind passed through it. I took a seat down on the cold rocky ground, grabbed the blanket that was in the basket and covered it over me. I’ll be waiting here till she comes back. Everything’s going to be fine besides she said it herself. She’ll come back for me. Right?

FLOWERS Zyta Mak

LOVE IS BULLSHIT

Mahcai Castillo

Love is bullshit.

Tempting yet unnecessary.

Beautiful yet broken.

I don’t think I ever had someone love me before.

I still can’t even love myself yet the feeling of being touched and devoured seems soothing.

I wish to be the special spark in a person's eyes, the reason they wake up in the morning with a smile and although they can’t stay in bed they know they get to see me.

Love is bullshit.

It’s a bullshit feeling created for you to get happy about a person then ruined inside with betrayal and depth.

If I could be loved I’d want that love from my mother. Pretty boy with pretty eyes will only ever let me down, yet I can’t help but want that.

Maybe, just maybe, love isn’t bullshit.

Lit by Design Contest 1st Prize Winner!

VALUES

J.

My algebra teacher taught us that a function is a dependent relation. Each output depends on the input. Just like I depended on you. Just like we all depended on you. We were supposed to be the function family and as much as I'm happy that you have a new function, with new values, I miss our function, our family. You were so unfair to your other values as if you just forgot about them. Now because of you, our function is broken. our function values are nothing, they mean nothing, I value nothing and will remain at zero.

FLOWER HEAD

Naeemah Mozumder

THE CORRECTION OF OPPRESSION: MY THOUGHTS

Savannah Simpson

To be or to not to be black that is a question, In a world where colors matter instead of dreams…

That’s a real obsession, Depression of those who has suffered because they are judged by their complexion, Correction I may have mistaken this oppression, It is more than just a depression it is:

INJUSTICE

RACISM

DISCRIMINATION

A REFLECTION OF WHAT HISTORY HAS BROUGHT TO US….. chains, blood, ropes, blood, fire burns but still blood, Murdered, sacrificed? Slaves, sacrificed?

Now in the 2020s it’s all the same but different, no? When the Black man yells: I CAN’T BREATH, STOP PLEASE MA MAAA HELPP ME, Now a Black man can’t live longer than what he was SUPPOSED to live. Now he’s 6 feet under where they WANTED him to live….

I bet y’all scared, scared everyday to live in a world y’all not accepted in…. I’m not accepted in…

The Correction of Oppression…

It’s funny how some of y’all can sleep at night all cozy in bed all relaxed, While they sleep with knives in hands for protection, Once again this is an oppression, We lack the protection from this oppression, We have to come as a community and make a correction, As much as we want to look back at the past, We need to remember that we must last, Miss Obama once said, “History has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own”

So let’s hope we get infected by this power of courage and be filled with the hope that life has given us and cure us with the Correction of Oppression.

LONELY

Mahcai Castillo

Lonely in the dark of night, hoping to be satisfied

Though death shall cut you like a knife we part ways both you and I

Reality flickering with my mind yet I still see your shadows at night

Wishing I could disappear when all I wanted was for you to be near.

Art by Tamia Wilson

CLOSED UP

Melany Morales

I’ve been down

Nothing is going my way

Being played out like a clown

Disgusted by the way that my life going now

Not where I wanna be

And distractions stay right beside me

But I know for a fact that I’m making it out

It’s part of the process

So Ima embrace the way I’m feeling now

Head up, this crown ain’t falling down

I know that I frown

But blue faces make me feel happier in the sense of me living more freely

Jump into the ocean, I feel the waves so deeply

crashing me over and causing me pain

Maybe I’m going insane

Maybe I'm hard to tame

Like a lion

I’m meant to be free

So why would I be locked in a cage

Government lying

CLOSED UP by Melany Morales (continued)

I’ll live on a island in peace

Start a new life overseas

I’m aiming real high and my past won’t drag me down

Memories I wanna erase

Loving myself feels like the best option

So don’t be offended by change

I’ll isolate myself so if you see swerving in my lane

Stay out of my way cause if you crash into me

There’s no warranty

You ain’t getting time back

So think carefully

My heart

I’m protecting it by any means

I’m not mean

Just closed up to a certain degree.

SKETCHES

Shayleen Nunez

HIM AND HYM

Mariela Pujols

WE MUST KILL OUR WIVES…

(inspired by The Color Purple)

Marianny Solis

We must kill our wives in hopes they behave. And if they don’t we shall bury them, In graves.

It is of the utmost importance to correct their mistakes, Because if they don’t tend to their husband and kids— They are a disgrace. Useless, unfocused, unbothered—misshaped.

Women should be seen and not heard, They should be polite but not too friendly to other men. But men, oh we deserve to fall in love again and again. It’s in our nature.

We are supposed to have wives, From the beginning of time, We are there to provide.

(continued)

We Must Kill Our Wives by

Marianny

Solis (continued)

‘Wives is like children. you gotta let them know who got the upper hand.’

She gets to reminisce

About the cuts, the bruises, and my fist.

The blood splatter on the sheets—

While I get to celebrate her obedience with bliss.

I push her down to her knees, So she sweeps the glass on the floor and weeps With her sliced up wrists and Her throbbing knees, Making it difficult for her to speak

As she breathes in, her chest collapses. Her lungs feel like tiresome masses.

Still, she tries to relax, Envisioning her leaving

In hopes to distract her from the pain I inflict.

POEM

Glorimar Pena

Everything starts up amazing

Sooner or later

Hell opens up

Hitting

Burning

Hurting you

All until they walk in

Reminding you how bright the sun shines

Pulling you out of the darkness that once had you trapped in its unbreakable curse.

SHATTERED

Leaving you free

LOVE

Picking up your once broken pieces little by little sowing you back together.

PASSION

Is the only thing that runs through your kneels planted sunflowers.

Blooming into beautiful scars marking your long journey

Hoping that feeling could have lasted longer you look down at your scars.

Not remembering anything

For all you know they were never there

JOYFULNESS

Marianna Adames

SPARKLE

Travis Dizon

I don’t know what’s gotten into me

But everytime I see you I get put in a trance

I don’t see you often but when I do

My mind scrambles to look for reasons to talk to you. Your eyes sparkle like the sequins of a beautiful dress

You remind me of the stars, so mesmerizing yet so unreachable.

The way you move with your straight and long hair, As smooth as the satin veils of a wedding gown

So elegant and graceful

You remind me of the stars. So mesmerizing, yet so unreachable.

Your voice, so soft and mellow

Like the strings of a violin I could listen to you all day

You remind me of the stars. So mesmerizing, yet so unreachable.

Even though I’ve only seen you with a mask

I’m sure your smile is the reason why flowers bloom

Once again, you remind me of the stars, so mesmerizing, yet so unreachable.

Sigue brillando estrella fugaz

LIVING A FALSE REALITY

Marianny Solis

Ignorance is blissful; Warm and pleasantry

Rose-colored spectacles help me see.

In an internal discussion

With oneself:

Analyzation quickly leads to Realization and hurt.

Oh how I wish I could begin, high-school again.

To be coddled by my parents— And told that everything was going to be ok.

But ignorance, Or rather naivety is a coquette; Seducing me from wanting to live—

In the actual world or in a fraction of reality.

One where heartbreak was never invented And suffering never existed

In this perfect world:

Living a False Reality by Marianny Solis (continued)

pain is an illusion I wonder..

How can I smile? when people are starving. How can I laugh? when others are suffering.

They say empathy is a gift To me, it is a curse that encourages me to become one with the outside world

Feeling all the feelings Of sadness, torture, humiliation Regret.

INSPIRED BY “ATTACK ON TITAN”

Shayla Hearst-Rodriguez

UNFAIR FAIRYTALE

How did you end up here?

You used to wrap yourself up in stories like a blanket but it was the cold you were always left with. Sweet goosebumps as he slipped the glass slipper over your tiny toes. A perfect fit. An imagination. The real princesses across the hall laughing, doing nothing but being absolute perfection. You saw the clear imbalances between you and them and swore to never believe you were worthy of a perfect fit again. But we’re human and we crave. The need and want to be the princess were sewn into you. If he was real, if he could save you from the unfairness of the world, when would he come? How longer would you have to wait?

The answer was a backstab in a hundred fleeting memories. The smirk on Jaylen G.’s face as he grabbed your ass on your way home. Your step dad’s aggression making you fear him. The drunk guy running his hand on your 14-year-old body at Coney Island. Your father’s words as he threw everything he owned into a suitcase and left without a warning that that’d be the last of him.

After every late night cry because you let yourself be swept by another boy, whether they were smart, patient or rude.

After every attachment you soon realized you didn’t have whatever magic turns a beast into a prince and you never would. Because you were certainly not a princess, just a girl.

THE FORTUNE COOKIE

Marianny Solis

When I was a child, We played games

Where we would fold

A piece of paper into a little fortune cookie.

And it revealed The age we would get married

Divorced

Have kids

How much I applaud our enthusiasm

For the unknown

The curiosity to build a future Out of nothing…

We dreamt of being older

Hoping for freedom, love

But now it seems like many of us are lost

Lost in between who we once were And those we aspire to be.

To return to a place of such naïveté

Where we can dream forever and not Loathe the agony of reality.

Because it’s harsh isn’t it?

Growing up, I mean… breaking hearts, compromising, And responsibilities are anything but free…

STRANGER

Ononna Khan

“Stranger in the back of the classroom. Looking down trying to hide like a turtle getting scared and hiding in its shell

Once she looks up and smiles, it feels like the warmth of the sun hitting you from the first sunrise of the new year. She answers the questions so intelligently.”

I am not that intelligent I am just trying to get by

Dependable: like an umbrella you luckily find when it's raining perfectly intact for you to use

Loyal: when a knight devotes his life to his king doing anything the king orders even if good or bad

I am the mirror broken into pieces that you see in the sidewalk while you are on a midnight walk

I am peaceful like a newborn baby sleeping in their mother’s arm.

I looked up I saw someone new I wanted to say hello but I can't because I am the stranger sitting in the back of the classroom.

SKETCHES

Shayleen Nunez