A Prayer to The Sky – Odessa Goldberg

A prayer to the sky
A hollow castle
Decorated by constellations
Of tortured knights and
Stranded princesses
A connection that tears through the light years to reach us
Only to become lost in the midst of our wonder.

The End of the World – Odessa Goldberg

Tonight I weep for the world,
not the Earth, but the world,
a planet teeming with cultured civilizations,
people who talk in elegant tongues and issue bright forms of self expression,
the world: torn and run over by our greed for paper rectangles and electronic numbers.
I weep for the world: with our civilizations
now paved with cement and skyscrapers,
for our libraries containing the berth of human intelligence,
how we strived to understand our world,
categorize it,
normalize it,
and how it would all be weathered by storm and sea when we’re gone,
the Earth re shining its surface of humans,
that moment when the last book gets torn in half by the wind
and the last building smashed by nature’s fist,
animals growing over urban landscapes
as avenues turn into savannas with caged animals now freed.
That when the last human took the last breath in the last human body
and there would be no one would be left to record it.
An Earth without humans, no longer a world:
I weep for the world

Artemis Fredrick

Once upon a time
A princess was locked in a high tower
if knights value their lives
they won’t let her out
she’d kill them all and crown herself queen
Once upon a time
Cinderella was gay
and she asked for one less footman and one more sword
because the prince at the ball
was planning to execute her the next day
I wonder when love will mean more than being desirable
Once upon a time
Dragons were afraid of heights
Once upon a time
Witches were exiled princesses
I wonder when sexual assault will stop being a sign of affection
Once upon a time
Snow White became Narnia’s White Queen
after her statutory rape
I wonder why kissing a dead body is acceptable to teach little girls.
Once upon a time
There was a prince who dreamed of making jam and wearing a tiara
Once upon a time
The bruises found on the princess
weren’t eve from a pea
Don’t believe what they told you
the king never faced the assault charges
Once upon a time
Kingdoms wrere a nice word for totalitarian governments
Once upon a time
Belle got diagnosed with Stockholm Syndrome
I wonder why people question why girls love abusive boys after they have been taught
“Oh, he pushed you and pulled your hair? It means he likes you!”
Once upon a time
Little Red Riding Hood had a name and grew up to be an explorer
Once upon a time
It wasn’t happily ever after.

Artemis Fredrick

Maybe this would all be easier
if I could hate you
I’m sure you don’t feel any love for me
you’ve given me no reason
to smile when I think of you
It hurt, you know
and you don’t care
Smiling to my face as you held me
only to clench my throat in your fist
your blade in my back
and I hugged you as I lay dying
because if I’d hit you
it would have hurt me too
so I let you cut me open
and I found a quiet place to be myself
the person you never wanted to exist
If I don’t fit in your conception of the universe
then you shouldn’t be in mine either
So go

Talia Smith

There is a girl of the mountains
beauty so serene
Yet her anger lashes like a whip,
Cold and mean

Her jaw carved of granite
Eyes made of ice
Cheeks whipped red from the cold dark nights

All heads bow
worshipping her evergreen elegance
She treats them just the same
No mercy or gentleness

Some say, hers is the touch of death
Some say, the beginning of life
Nevertheless
I must respect the pristine beauty,
of this princess of ice

Bianca Cooper

Anonymous

You hurt me more then words can know
Even a look even a name even that boy reminds me of what you did
Who the hell do you think you are
Who the hell did I let you become
Your touch is burned into my mine

Your breathe your body your hands around my neck or your mouth on my stomach, it makes me stop. Makes me scream inside, the feeling of you makes my skin crawl

Your words and your lies. Your empty praises and false claims of love sting me
The pain you caused has no limits and has no words
The way I felt the way you made me feel
Hunted worthless used
You had no right to come close to me

Oh how you have tried to turn things around, lash out at me or ignore me
Ignore what you’ve done
But I don’t disappear I won’t
And I wouldn’t let your guilt either
The pain you inflicted on me should be nothing compared to your Conscience weighing on you.
You cannot ignore or forget
And you cannot act as though it didn’t happen because by touching me
You killed me
I am a new girl now
One who has seen the bad
And cherishes the good
And one who will serve as a constant reminder of the evil that lives in you
A constant reminder you will never get away with what you have done.

Stop, is all that runs through my head
Pain is all I feel
My heart hurts
My eyes sting
How could you
What am I
I am not yours to touch
Yet you do anyway
Stop I want to scream
But I can’t
And you won’t.

Now I flinch when my mom hugs me
When my friends put their arms around me
Even when the boy I like holds my hand
All because I am reminded of you.

I wish that you hadn’t
Left me as broken
As bruised
As damaged
I wish
That you would never affect me
But you do
And that did
And part of me is scared
Scared I won’t get fixed
That I’ll be broken forever
When you touched me
You took a part of my soul
My innocence
And my control
And I’m scared I’ll never get it back

Parker Falzone

Once I heard a story about a special rose
And this is how it goes
There was this bright rose
That no one knows
A rose so soft and sweet from the head to the toes
But one day it gets picked from its home and there it goes
And that’s the end of the rose