Those humans. Always thinking they’re better than us, living in their giant boxes and walking around on their hind legs. Now look at them. Hovering by my dinner and making loud noises at each other.

The girl looks angry. Good! I’m angry with him too. He’s always shooing me away from the metal can where he stores the best food. Yesterday, he threw a rock at me. My shoulder still hurts from that.

...

You’re a butcher,

Cutting here, slicing there,

Removing pieces that

Don’t require

Your touch.

Let’s be honest

You’re good at it,

Intangible wounds

You’ve inflicted by

Your words.

But I think

It’s your absence

That hurts most.

A painful silence.

You’re gone....

I settle on the wooden bench along the wall. The sun spills through the bay window on my right, interrupted by passersby heading to work. Droplets race down the glass, flickers of light captured within them. How rain falls while the sun still shines I’ll never know.

It’s quiet here. In the other room, muffled sounds of creation mix with vague voices and laughter. I place my notebook on the tabl...

Think, brain, think. What should I write? There’s a word I learned today, something that rhymed with earth. Birth, surf, serve, hors d’oeuvre. Oh, that’s not even English. And you call that a rhyme?

Try again, brain.

Dearth! Ah yes, there it is. The word of the hour - but what does it mean? Come on, now. You can’t remind me of a stupid word without coming up with the meaning too. Honestly, brain...

I feel them rolling

Down my cheeks,

But I don’t know why.

Think, think, but nothing

Comes to mind.

What brought them to my eyes?

I guess, sometimes,

The body remembers

What the mind forgets.

So let them flow,

Feel the relief

Of yesterdays tears....

I am made entirely of flaws,

Stitched together

By good intentions.

From friends, I painfully withdraw

When desperately

I need direction.

I looked at mirrored me and saw

A boy with promise

But poor complexion.

Red-stained hand and chiseled jaw,

What good is a man

Without recognition?

I am entirely made of flaws

Stitched together

By good intentions.

A forgotten mess of hay and straw

Left outsi...

Cards in hand,

Faces stilled.

Ancient rules

And hardened wills.

Fighting death,

Not by choice.

Lost my breath

Found my voice.

Time is short,

Make your move.

Ticking clock

Time to prove

Who you are,

Where you’ve been,

Where you’ll go

Before the end.

Close your eyes

Breathe it in.

Feel it rise

To the brim.

Victory

Close at hand,

Draw the line

In the sand.

Now it’s time.

Finish him.

End the gam...

Caden looked up at the starry sky. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and now a million pricks of light danced above him.

“Does the sun get lonely up there?” he asked. “I mean during the day. All the other lights run away when he comes around.”

Father shifted on the blanket before speaking. “I suppose you’re right,” the man said. His voice was deep but hushed. “But maybe they don’t run away...

I see them standing there, swaying side to side, feverishly tapping their feet. A long line of bright, young faces. Some of them are my friends. I wish I was standing there with them, waiting to write my name on the volunteer sheet. Do they know how badly I want to fight? Do they realize what I’d give for the Commonwealth? But I can’t fight. “Unfit for duty,” they said. Now I have to watch my frie...

Morning sprung, the soldiers

Were gone.

Outside, nothing left

But long trails

Of mud and blood.

Our land is poisoned,

But darkness

Has abandoned us.

Morning has come, the soldiers

Are gone.

And so we step timidly

Into the dawn.

Forever changed,

But together

We remain....