With the night comes darkness, but also stars.

With pain comes joy, but also scars.

With dreams come obstacles, but also lessons.

With life comes sugar, but also lemons.

With the sun comes clouds, but also rain.

With growth comes failure, but also gain.

With loss comes anguish, but also scars.

With the night comes darkness, but also stars....

I wish I didn't have to be here.

I struggled with all my might as the tentacles pulled me down into the trash pile below, ready to swallow me whole right then and there.

I had been volunteering at the landfill for almost a week now. It's not like I had a choice; I had had several misdemeanours and two felony convictions. "Now get a life," I remember the officer's last words when I left prison ...

I wanted more money

For me and my honey

So we could be more wealthy

And we could eat more healthy

Food is too pricey to buy

And so that’s exactly why

I crave a better situation

To keep up with inflation

One week it was $1 more

Then the next, another four

Goddamn bananas and meat!

Why can’t life just be more sweet?

Last month I made $5004

Now I made one thousand more

But my rent was once two th...

I want a husky since I know one who one belongs to my friend

But my parents’ objection to having a pet knows no end

What if I use my Christmas cash to buy a pet?

All the work would make my parents quite upset...

Riley Andersen’s teeth chattered as she walked behind. The temperature was 26 degrees Fahrenheit, and it certainly showed around her; the air was bitterly cold against her body even with a bulky jacket and hat, icicles hung from the trees like sleeping fruit bats, and the ground was covered in snow that reached as far as her ankles with every step.

Then Riley froze on the spot as she saw a doll-...

“Alyssa, don’t do it!” Jake pleaded.

As Jake stared at the ticking bomb, he tried wiggling and squirming tirelessly to break free from the ropes. But the uncomfortably tight ropes, bounding him tightly to the table like a python strangling its prey to death, refused to budge. He couldn’t even feel his legs or his feet, and his mind told him right away, _There’s no getting out of this one_.

“Th...

The flying foxes were everywhere

Winged bats in the night

As they swarmed the gun-toting poacher

They were quite the scary sight

It wasn’t just the thought of rabies

Or their scary faces

Or the strength that came in numbers

It was the their teamwork and how they faced it

The doomed poacher thought to himself

“Why’d I get into this” as he was swarmed...

I came downstairs

In the morning

It was 7

Day was boring

I was tired

I was groggy

Out the fridge

The fruit was soggy

Then mom came

Into the kitchen

And she told me,

“Son, please listen”

“I know you’re sad

But not today”

Then she hugged me

“Happy birthday!”

And I smiled....

Thomas and Dmitry glared at each other, a stare so intent and full of rivalry. Finally, the stopwatch started, and Thomas eagerly moved to pick up his first pawn.

Dmitry stared at the board, his eyes invisible through his spy-like sunglasses.

After a few minutes, the board was short of pawns, the first line of defence on the black and white chessboard almost all but extinguished.

_Time to tak...

…I see things I don’t want to see.

When I look in the mirror,

I see something I only wish I could be.

As I look in the mirror, I see visions of a life wasted. I see dreams that I could have achieved, but instead, I think back to my wasted days of procrastinating, making the wrong choice for education after high school, and scrolling through social media instead of doing, learning, and reading.

...