Poetry

By Joshua Lefort Aloft in thoughts canvassed by your brush, I dissolve in cherry blues where Chalked clouds float adrift, And piercing birds soar aflight. Sun-tamed, async with light’s bends, I can’t help but arch with swept feet, Sliding down this colourful spree. In peace—I’m sound asleep. But still I rise to unsung melodies Perched on boughs parted Where ripened green shears  Through brittle bark. By Terabithia I await you. A lonely togetherness, There we can lay in the si

By Joshua Lefort Black is a colour unable to reflect light. Unable to feel pain, to rejoice, or to cry. Unable to breathe, to move, or to be alive. For so long, I have been defined as a foreign substance, An outsider, an undesirable fruit: Too bitter, too acidic, too sour, too tart—too Black. I have been born prey in a predator’s game. I have been born Black in a White world. My freedom, locked away by the colour of my skin. I am a modern slave; I am a pawn in a game of chess

By Joshua Lefort From the majesty of weathered boughs, To burgeoning buds and disseminated roots. From the rain-washed earth, To the rich black soil and its carbonated diamonds. Splendor brims with vigor,  As the plentiful unembodied experience  We’ve come to know as beauty. But beauty is but a fragile gift in a cruel world. A distilled elixir siphoned by the ugliness of our world. A mine of industrial exploitation to be deflowered, pruned and sorted. A bountiful light that h

By Joshua Lefort Words of mine aren’t new. Defeated and strained, Face up, you froze up, Outside in the cold,  Alone, I left you.  With broken knees and unmet needs, You stumbled to a crawl With whispers of hope  And the courage of speech. “How do we move past this?”  Mad at the question,  Stirred by the confusion it created, Debating with the silence it evaded, I stood with clenched fists and pursed lips. You, I was afraid to lose, But this internal implosion Yearned for a l

By Joshua Lefort Ink to paper I lay down, A heaviness at the centre of my world, I breathe out. To you, I admit that after all, I know not what came to mind, Died within and festered at my lips. With big smiles and open arms, So much I’ve taken, But little given, Not much I’ve left behind. Many times, I looked up, But couldn’t find where. Thought back, but couldn’t remember when. Asked, but couldn’t find who. In sand, I sat on a throne, And in the crypts of darkness, Like a h

By Melissa M. Sharp Set my grief aside,  And pull the rifle to my friend’s head.  Fire out bullets made of seeds that sprouted forget-me-nots, Drip and delight from the dying eyes.  Pick them off, Allow the stem to break, Let the petals squash. Watch in perverted hunger at the blood on my fingertips, See how it mixes with the baby blue? By accident. Always by accident.  It has  to be. Stick them to my walls, Next to my jars of emotions that I never dare open. God, their screa

By Melissa M. Sharp “ Ask the lilacs. ” My mother told me once when I was young.  She had cupped my hand, leading me down paths of wheat fields, occasionally stopping to admire the flowers that bloomed from the grainy soil,  underfoot.  Her smile was radiant! God, how her laughter dripped like warm honey from my ears. And by knowing all things holy,  I can utter a fact so earnest it makes me cry: She was a goddess, my darling mother.  And I am,  her deceiving daughter, part l

By Melissa M. Sharp My mother, a woman full of deep irrational ire and pain, stands with my wedding dress, cupped delicately in her quivering hands. A bowed head,  dark velvet curls shielding a crying collection of cascading tears,  her hair is so painfully dark against the white hues of my dress. She is a statue emitting grief in her perpetual silence. She never moved from this stance,  not really, not ever.  A warrior will never cease their feud. A fool will always choose t

By Melissa M. Sharp Forever, I fall under the illusion of chance, At any waking time, I can. From the moment the skylarks wake and begin their dance, Until the fields are filled with snoring lamb.  The days commence in repetitive motion, As my imprisoned heart beats in tandem. Frantically, I drink my crafted potion, And at last, the world stops at random.  I am a cacophony of maddened people, Whose words withered in time for winter. When the snow had concealed the steeple, Of

By Melody McCoy-Cole Drive Away to go hide Faster and faster  Zooming past by Racing thoughts in your vision Blurry eyes and can’t see STOP! Hit the brake You almost hit a boy running free Cry and stare at the red lights and stop signs If only you had caution with your heart then it wouldn’t beat so fast And things wouldn’t be so broken. Things would last. Drive Go slow it’s starting to rain Window wipers up Wipe your tears to hide the shame The vile touch he made Despite scr

By Melody McCoy-Cole Stained glass My heart is black But please don’t break me fast  I’ll give you my soul I won’t make you pay I’ll do anything you say Just know I’m fragile As a porcelain doll Just hollow and carved out of all- Things that make people rejoice Because when you’re a doll the smile is fake and no one hears your voice So pardon if I scream Or if I seem upset But I have done things I regret And I shall not let my crack be unsealed Let my porcelain heart beat for

By Melody McCoy-Cole Trapped under starlight, Where’s the moon? There are no clouds, So where are you? All I can do is wonder, Now, How? And why? You’re not here,  And I’m left with broken nails and butter knives. Petty voices on my mind, Be aware of things in time, Each blood drop dripped, And water spilled, Another fear teared open, At will, With my broken nails and butter knives. Broken nails and butter knives, Carve the picture in my head, Go to bed now dear, Let your dre

By Melody McCoy-Cole Deep breath In. Out. Your body’s supple frame is wet Perspiring with exhaustion No longer able to stay in motion Check your pulse Does it race or stay slow Are you breathing deep still or is it your time to go Chest begins to tighten You start to feel weak Dizzy, hazy, your mind starts to freak The poison you inhaled was one of life’s blessings Giving you the opportunity of sweet savor of dying You realize you’re surrounded by those that you love You watc

By Melody McCoy-Cole Pop some pills hope to be thin One fad is out and another comes in  One that is smaller and even more new  But probably more dangerous as the previous two So we can make ourselves the tiniest of all No one catches the bones when we fall Decomposing ourselves from the inside out Not listening to our body’s shouts Getting to that final size Even if death is on the rise Worse than Ebola or any other disease Is the one that I control the one that lives within

By Melody McCoy-Cole Pray to the thin goddess My bones ache to the soul Diet pills religiously Vomit in the cold Shiver through the night Hoping you’ll make it till dawn Do you think you will survive this winter, As a skeleton with nothing on? Pigments have weakened Things move too slow Slay the beast inside my head That forbids my body to grow. No more nourishment to stay protected, healthy and give heat This beast seems to never be beat. Yet I die inside slowly Pains crippl

By Melody McCoy-Cole Soft on the outside, different within, Juicing out red, pinkness gone, Giving to powers one two three, Never getting enough of the growing fruit in me. Fuzzy blur, daze in the night, drip out the sweetness, bitter right, Truthful, wakeful, thoughtful too, But why do I feel so damn blue? Sorrow songs calling from a black bird, Slaws sunk in the fruit, Rot rot, decaying quickly, happiness gone, No one sees my missing face. Brown on the edges, no fingers or

By Melody McCoy-Cole White and blank, light as air, Frost delight, going nowhere, Snowy owls all are we, goals is all we see, We hoot and whisper in the night of bliss, Hoping one of us will find happiness, Snow’s sound. Shadows across the glittery blanket, hollow and free, Fly away to become nothing, that’s the dream, Flakes of sparkles fall from the sky, Our owls still sleeping in the midst of the night, Snow’s sound. Zero minus one, negativity, If we only knew the thoughts

By Melody McCoy-Cole Haunting secrets loom over your head, Worse than the monsters that lie under your bed. Next to you lies your wastebasket full of your vomit and pride, Confidence so low you can only hide. Hide your secret, hide your disease, hide all the ways you displease yourself and me, Throw away the garbage but keep the self-hate, remember to recycle your smiles so you can learn to appreciate. Appreciate your master, the controller of your mind, the one who controls

By Melody McCoy-Cole Unsure, guilty, and disgust Growing deep inside me Roaring from my stomach, spit through my teeth Confusion about reality Distorted, uncomfortable views The disorder consumes me yet I allow it to. Expand expand expand  Tightening at the seams Mirrors tell lies not truths About what’s inside me Judge my looks and scowl At the days end My body is my enemy and my eating disorder is my best friend. Maybe I am wrong Maybe it’s not true But change is terrifying

By Haliemarie Leitch 7:45am Her eyes burst open. “Oh no I woke up late again” she exhales. The feeling of shame rushes from her toes to her head. She thinks about her night before as she rushes to get ready. All she did was call her boyfriend. But she has woken up late. For that she is ashamed. Step Step Step, she hears her mother’s footsteps. 7:50am She rushes up the stairs with all her bags ready to start her day. She grabs a muffin and the 2 yogurts she always has for brea