Warrior Voices Second Issue Reupload

WSST'S LITERARY MAGAZINE

WARRIOR VOICES Volume 2 Issue 1

January 2023

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CONTENTS 03

Mission Statement

07

Short Stories

11

Haikus

19

Sonnets

02

CONTENTS 25

Video & Photos

29

Poems

59

The Team

60

Thank You Letter

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MISSION STATEMENT There are many talented writers and artists here in our very own school.

It’s time for our scholars' work to be seen! Warrior Voices is Western’s first literary magazine, and it’s focused on getting student work recognized. Our literary magazine’s leadership team will work diligently to publish student work including but not limited to short stories, essays, poems, jokes, comics, and art. It is our top priority to ensure that student creative expressions are represented adequately and given a place to be celebrated by our community for generations to come.

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SHORT STORIES

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IN MY DREAMS Lourdes Garza

Can dreams be inside of a dream? I have always dreamt of finding that perfect someone, yet why is it that love is always only one sided. Out of all the places to fall in love, why did it have to be in a place where we have no other option but to part ways after I wake up… I tend to sleep quite often because I don't find motivation in being awake during the day. Most of my fond memories are those in which I am sleeping. It was a normal day like all the other ones. However, the moment I laid myself to sleep, I woke up. Yet, I was in a coffee shop. I looked around aimlessly and knew I was dreaming but had a sense of control. I walked towards the door and as soon as I held the door, a guy opened it on the other side. My heart raced as he looked at me and held the door. “You gonna go?” he asked me. I smiled awkwardly and walked out the door. “Thank you,” I replied. “Your welcome,” he responded and walked into the coffee shop.

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Just like that I woke up, and he was gone. The next day I was so exhausted from the workload of my college life that I took a nap on my couch while doing homework. Once again I woke up but this time I was on a bus. As I got off that bus, he came rushing in and tripped me. He immediately apologized and placed me back on my feet. I walked off the bus and he was gone once again. I had woken up. What is this? Did he recognize me? I thought to myself. Twice in a row felt like once too many. Nighttime arrived and I was anxious to meet him again. I closed my eyes and awoke. I was sitting on a park bench and looked at my surroundings.

Right at that moment, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was him once again. We spoke for a while and he asked for my name. I responded and right as I asked for his, I was gone once again. I had woken up. Night after night our eyes would meet in another world. As we got closer I took naps throughout the day just so I could hang out with him.

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Then one day, we were walking around a city and he popped the question. “Would you go out with me?” My heart raced and I could feel every beat from within. I was only in a dream and had nothing to lose. Was my dream coming true? Why did it have to be in a dream? However, I woke up before I could answer. The next day I was eager to see him once again and went to sleep early. I was ready to answer his question. I woke up. Why was I still on my bed? Did I dream at all? The next day came and the next. I would dream but they were like all the others I had before I laid eyes on him. Would I see him again or was that the last time our eyes would meet? I started to lose hope. I missed him even though he was only a figment of my imagination. I was walking around campus the next day late for a class. I had gotten 2 hours of sleep thinking about him all night. “Nabi!” I looked up and saw HIM. He approached me… “Do you have an answer for me now?”

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HAIKUS

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Jolette Munoz Louisiana Borbon You’re like an orange I am like a red apple We can’t be compared <3

Aaron Salguero

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Anonymous You are like the sun Although we never have fun The rain always comes

Melani Alvarez

Victoria Olivas Water moves freely Like silk on a king sized bed Smooth like soft butter

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Anonymous One look in her eyes Turned into stone before us No longer with us

Victoria Olivas A pen is a sword To a writer who’s mourning They show grief through art

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Anonymous Into space we go Exploring everything new Surrounding us all

Anonymous Words are everywhere Mankind can’t live without words Words spread others needs

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Anonymous To provide vision To mimic the Phoebus Light Within your own hand

Anonymous In sixty-one keys To speak without using words To sing without voice

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Julian Vaca THE DESERT IS COLD ANTARCTICA IS HOT TOO BOTH ARE DYING, HELP

Victoria Olivas The lady was tall She chose to leave with Tommy They got wings and pop

Nicholas Aguilar Here, sitting, waiting Dull, expecting the phone But now. “I got it.”

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SONNETS

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It’s painful to see you again six feet under The love we once had faded, But the memories will never leave my mind The days we spent together under the sunset and Watching each other succeed at our dreams Having you in my life were the happiest days Now that you aren’t here I’m giving up We are like butterflies after they mated We were together and then you were gone, It is now my turn to leave And find you six feet under So, let’s see where I end up Now that you are gone

Anonymous

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Meeting you wasn’t that special Throughout the years getting to know you Then I knew you might be the one Growing up without one and you filling Up that emptiness with the love was So special to me. You giving me the Knowledge and showing me how to open up With my emotions and with the right words But when you’re gone I’m afraid that you Wouldn’t listen and give me your personal Opinion or showing me your love Or not getting those deep conversations.

You’re my inspiration and thank you for that Without you I wouldn’t be who I am

Carlos Soto

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How much am I worth A penny, a nickel, a dime, a quarter, a dollar Am I worth your time No, you did the crime While I just watched and wasted time You just made me your dime You are sour like a lime On this Earth I know my worth Where my heart tells me What I really see Am I really me I buzz off like a bee I will now flee

Julian Vaca

23 Sitting outside waiting for the day to end Time was slow trying to figure out how to spend my time, Find ways to make myself go blind Saw you walking down the street Body froze and hid behind the chair and couldn't dare to peek Next time I see you I had to make a move before you moved along Seemed so wrong but had to stop you before you were gone Decided to ask you to a homecoming to dance to gnaw Once the day came Saw a shine in my eyes with joy Couldn't believe my eyes once I got there Seeing her dancing with another was a surprise Thought i had the grand prize Despised myself knowing it would happen as I sat and cried

Anonymous

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VIDEO & PHOTOS

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NADIA BESS

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JOLETTE MUNOZ

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JOSE BELTRAN

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POEMS

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Sorry I Wasn't Enough Anonymous

I’m sorry that I wasn’t enough for you.

She was everything I wasn’t; Smart, pretty, kind, popular She had herself figured out I don’t even know who I am But I do know that I liked being with you You made me feel as if there was value in life Up to the point where you met her I see the way you look at her when she is with you The way you smile, while you tell me all about how perfect she is You tell me that she’s as beautiful as watching the sunset, And that you can stare at her all day It made me realize that I’m not, and will never never be her She was everything you have ever dreamed of I hate to admit it, but no matter how hard I try There’s no way I can hate her, she’s the one I wanted to be Same way I wanted to be yours I’m sorry that I wasn’t enough for you.

31 In my heart you are no more The heart that was once ours Torn to pieces by your hands It no longer beats I've run from you far to long When you left it was shattered to bits Broken fragments left behind Why have you done this I rescued it myself and held it in my arms For I brought it back to life With care and tender love For it is mine and not yours Protected from your hands My heart that beats alone Shattered into millions of pieces Left alone in the darkness Founded by love Yours beats with mine What was once broken Now fixed My new love is as high as the moon Together we live as one Never alone again

Anonymous

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Making you proud consumes me, Why do I feel like I don’t know myself?

All I do is make you happy, but where has my happiness gone?

Everyday I lose part of myself just to keep you content When will you ever be proud of me?

I feel as my actions don’t matter My emotions are like a withering flower Losing hope and dying slowly With every passing day next to you Is this what love is?

Anonymous

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They say love is what kills men Love makes us do things we didn’t even think we could do Love gives us motivation we didn’t know was there Love can be used as a weapon against anyone Love can separate people and unite people Some say that love isn’t real But if it’s not real how can it do all that?

Love is like a weapon, you could use it for good or for bad Love’s also a universal thing that all humans experience Yet not all of us like it

Bryan Ponce

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LIFE

Carlos Soto

The way we live Is one big story With many highs And many lows Some succeed many fail Live your life Because you can’t live it twice Live life with the fullest

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DEATH Carlos Soto

When you sleep For a lifetime Your body grow cold Nobody to hold Tears on everyone face Holding flowers to throw A fear everyone knows The time you grow old When you lie down alone All black nobody knows

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Do you remember?

The day we met in September It felt like a dream We cause lots of schemes Or do you remember?

We took an adventure We walked, talked for hours In a field full of flowers But now I'm sitting next to you Your body all screwed I'm here, holding your hand, praying While you were slowly fading And this time in December, Is a night I'll always remember

Sarahi Munoz

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Blisses towards eye’s Bright lights swing with every direction you look at The beauty within the cities and the darkness that crawls With petals that falls with each slicing through the Creating a pink mist that mesmerizes all Catching everyone's glances Keeping their stares Only in the season of life The day the signifies school The petal fall

Alonso Ontiveros Quevado

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I follow a unknown path like Dorothy Got folk watching from the tornado My progenitors crossed their own gold path Just to give thou his own lane Anticipated to get to the emerald city No, turning back No, U turns Now I proceed in thou lane But I don't want the path I want a diversion That is my emerald city That is my end My golden path

Pablo Sanchez

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You’ve done so much for me You helped me at the lowest and highest Without you who knows who I’d be Thinking about it turns my clarity into mist How fortunate I am to have you as my lady I fail to see how I’m worthy of your love I question it and feel blue Why have you chosen me as your dove I don’t deserve you But you still believe I’m not dull It’s an enigma really Who knows But I shouldn’t complain I’m yours and that’s what matters

Nicholas Aguilar

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BURNING Anonymous

It kind of felt like it was burning Everything I thought I loved was on fire The flames were like monsters; they would raise up and bite chunks out of my flesh This is the only way I know to describe it At some point, I began wishing I could set the rest of the world on fire I will not tell you why, as I do not fully understand But this world, which had burned me for so long, what I wanted was justice Do not ask why I did not ask for help I was only a child My feet were pinned to the ground below me and I could not move, I would cry, and yell, and scream, But I was yelling at a planet with its back turned to me “Kids will be kids” “You’re being quite sensitive” Perhaps you were right But pain is pain.

It will consume you from the inside out, and call you a gourmet meal I was only a child, Condemned to such torture And still, you act blind Do not take credit for putting out the fire when it was entirely my own doing Do not act as if you did not hear the screams of suffering, When you were so clearly ignoring them You messed up, but I do not hate you; I cannot even blame you But don’t act like nothing happened now As every sword is forged with heat, so was this smile Your acting makes me sick.

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The Tortiose and The Bumble Bee Anonymous

You were like a tortoise and a bumble bee The tortoise, respectful, kind, and honest The bumble bee, responsible, kind, and curious At a glance they were 2 dimensional I thought the bumble bee could never like me I thought the tortoise would be nothing but a passing conversation Both were bubbles in this space we call life At that point, they were side quests I did not know they would become main characters The bumble bee, who was once 2 dimensional, is now a firework of colors The tortoise, he is a rabbit hole of new things I did not think a tortoise could fly until I met him I did not know a bumble bee could walk powerfully until I met her The tortoise and the bumble bee At some point, They became who I love most

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A hot endless dry land, of pure death and emptiness.

A desert, where no creature lives but instead survives, Where one finds a cold shade Or stays in the beaming rays The desert as cruel as a no man's land A land so undesirable that no one Acknowledges its existence

Anonymous

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They shine bright like the sun In our eyes they glow A diamond could never compare Deep inside They are broken Shattered by a hammer At the hands of someone cruel Who will save this soul All alone For only time can tell

Anonymous

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This world is so vast; so scary Compared to it, I am insignificant It’s 5pm now and I am only a young girl With every passing second, the sun gets closer to completely shutting his eyes How will I survive? In the grace of the moonlight?

She is not enough.

I am not enough.

And yet I know nothing, I do not know my own insignificance, for I am a child I do not know this world's beauty; I do not know her story I have not traveled outside of what I have been confined to; I want to see For this cage cannot contain the bird for much longer I want to be scared in the presence of, her majesty, the moonlight 5pm A perfect time for wind

Lousiana Borbon

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ou are not easy You are tough at times You are full color You are empty of it too You can always bring a smile You can always bring a frown Nothing good ever stays Or nothing bad But your sibling is worse They are as cold as ice No remorse for who they see No remorse for who they take But they let us sleep

Anonymous

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Dare To Be Different Rebeca Garza

I never knew what being different was.

I was always told to be different, but what does being different really mean?

Being different is standing up for your own beliefs regardless of what others may think It is being the first to do something instead of waiting for others to do it first I’ve recently learned that I needed to be different mentally and spiritually I needed to move away from the current and go my own path, I need to not follow others' behaviors and instead shine bright for others to see Instead of falling into temptation, choose to walk away Instead of choosing to fit in, be different I encourage the person reading this to be different

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They’re name starts with D Their hair is the color of the rainbow As they dye it whenever they feel down They feel joy in writing music And making art out of their imagination To them, making a gift is better than buying one Their injuries are what got them here But their pain is what changed them Do what you want not what you dread Their mother always said to follow Before she got sick she was the thrill After, she was dull and took things serious It wasn't like her to not be the light of situations She went towards the light, no longer here to help

Victoria Olivas

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The claws on the heart Grasping it tightly Tail like a snake It moves slightly The cries are piercing Piercing the heart evermore Leaving the marks It leaves a wound that will never heal Although the wounds I’m fine with The fur that I pet slightly Your body so soft yet so fragile Cries that no longer pierce the heart.

Yet I hear the melody within it A calm and soothing hand is playing it.

Anonymous

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DNA, Water, Life It causes us to live Yet it doesn’t give why Layed here by a cuckoo So we made our own purposes Survival to Farming to Glory From Glory to god to War to Death Yet these are purposes we made Purposes we made to cope with our existence Maybe one day a purpose will be granted

Anonymous

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Why even try?

The world’s a cruel place You can't deny Judged by your race It's not a safe place People getting harmed Even when they’re unarmed Treated like a disease This pain will never ease All they do is lie So why even try?

Sarahi Munoz

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What if we can feel what other people feel?

We can be empathetic about someone else's feelings We know when or why they could be sad or mad But do we really know how someone feels What about their thoughts?

We can communicate verbally and non verbally Not through our thoughts as far as we know When we lose something someone might know about it We can't look into someone’s head and find their secrets Look into their lives and put ourselves in their shoes Find their exact location without a tracking device, just our mind There are only few of us and not a lot know what we can do We shine like the sun but harm like a fire The ones who can shine the brightest want to help Others want to take the shine from them Eventually those who take will succumb to their actions Everything they worked for will backfire in their faces The shiniest of them all outlive the dull

Victoria Olivas

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Falling asleep to the noise of crickets Eyes shut , heard someone knocking As I was unlocking the door I dropped to the floor Was hurt to the core, felt sore, felt as if I was hit by thor Waking up in a hospital bed , had a wound in my head Got up like nothing and decided to have a look around Heard an eerie sound; felt something near me Trying to find a way out felt scared as my heart began to pound Was feeling profound, found my way outside and saw no one except myself As if the population was swept didn't know what to do Started to neglect myself, felt as lonely as a cookie with no milk Woke up from the horrible dream, things didn't seem the same that day Looking at things a different way, seeing what life has to bring Things aren't always what it seems, how anyone's dreams could be gone clean

Anonymous

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Our lives are controlled by a simple green slip How we live our lives depend on our weekly wages, If we have enough to live our lives fruitfully We are defined by our earnings of money, and how we Think of one another, how we treat our neighbors It controls where we live and what we can eat for our lives If a person can feed themselves or starve till the next day Our debts can have a hold on how a someone lives their life, Believing that you can either pay for one or the other For many it defines the people we spend our lives with, If they can support a person's rewarding lifestyle It can demonstrate a person's greed in their life Yet, it can be used to improve another’s life To improve a life that is less successful than your own

Anonymous

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It was your birthday I made sure to stay up till 12:00 am, Be the first to congratulate you, Tell you how much you mean to me But we stopped speaking, We stopped texting, We only made eye contact Months later it was my day People were wishing me a happy birthday I know you heard them, I know you knew it was my day But the night settled in And my special day was almost over You never told me anything But I told myself it was fine.

That I didn't care It was past 12:00 am, A few minutes after my special day, I cried into my pillow, I cried like never before I did care, I cared too much I just wanted your wishes and no one else's.

But today is your birthday, So I will say...

I wish you a happy birthday, I love and hate you, My dear old friend.

Ruby Valenzuela

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Moving forward, I don't love you anymore I don't feel torn when I hear your name I don't cry over it anymore You don't matter the way you once did Despite the fact that I don't understand how, I'm okay with it Maybe you were what I needed at the time I think deep down I knew that we were never meant to be, but I held on to you anyway I'm proud of myself for moving on even though it scars me I’m proud of myself because I know that it's for the best So although a part of my heart will always hold you close, It's finally making the choice To let you go dear old friend.

Ruby Valenzuela

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All Hallow's Fright Jesus Beltran

Today is the day, it must be, The day of monsters, of sickly fiends Today is the day, of horrid shrieks, Today is the day of All Hallow’s Eve! Then why is it children I hear, Laughing all about?

They must not have heard, they have not fear, Jumping all around!

They must see, the flittermice, flapping their wings, And that lantern’s crooked teeth.

Why is there joy, why is there glee?

Why, this, on All Hallow’s Eve? If not this special day, then why prepare away?

If not this special day, then gone with this harrowing say!

The say that says there must be screams, The say that says, All Hallow’s Eve! Now, what is with this bothersome noise?

One that means to exasperate my poise?

A bell that bothers, a bell that stings, A bell that’s followed with, “Trick-or-Treat!”

Me, to be tricked, oh no good folk, I’ll leave my door shut until you leave my front porch!

But stay, they do, while whispering silly jokes, They ought to charge my door with a pitchfork and torch!

But there is no scare, no tension, nor fright, For these four friendly fellows mean to give no fight.

What is the meaning of this daunting day?

If no one is frightened, if no one is afraid?

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Now it is me, who shivers tonight.

I hear a scratching noise, coming from outside.

Surely it is nothing, on this day of pure laughs, Or maybe this is another trick, another trap!

I will not fall victim to your deceptive sound, One of a werewolf, looking for something to eat!

I shifted up the stairs, I must have weighed a pound!

Now, for the last hour of All Hallow’s Eve! I waited and waited, for the sound of a childish giggle, Instead I felt, maybe dew, a trickle.

A stream of fluid, down my head, “What may this be?” I said.

I swiped it away, with nothing to show!

There was more, and more and more!

The liquid grew, and flooded my poor home.

Now there were tears, mixed with this flow.

I sat and pondered, “What could this be?”

There is something in my room, a werewolf, it spotted me!

As a lump of flesh, bone and meat, I take off down stairs, tripping: silly feet!

Now there was a dagger, nearing my skull, This was real, I’m sure of it, I know!

I stood up straight, and fended my face, Now there was a terrible ghoul, leaving its pure red trace.

Now I’m helpless, now I see, And I still hear that phrase, “Trick-Or-Treat!”

This is my end, I decree, Evermore, I hear the howl, the call of All Hallow’s Eve!

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Warrior Voices Team Club Moderator Mr. Brenner

Co- Editors Lourdes Garza Alen Arredondo

Director of Design Jimena Zapien

Design Assistants Juan Solis Rebeca Garza Melani Alvarez

Director of Outreach Isabella Pacheco

Facilitators Lizzy Hernandez Areli Arredondo

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Thank you all for the submissions! This edition wouldn't have been possible without the vulnerability of our school community and their willingness to make their voices heard. We truly appreciate everyone who has played a role in supporting our club's mission.

We hope everyone who reads this enjoys it as much we enjoyed making it!

Sincerely, The Warrior Voices Team