By Claire Burianek
Ready or not,
Here life comes,
To entangle you in its mysteries,
To captivate you by its poetry,
And above all,
To leave you forever changed.
“Cheer Competition”
A toss and a catch.
Breathe.
360 degrees between you
And the ground.
Whispered breathless encouragements.
Smiles overexaggerated
And music pause.
Heart thuds,
Applause.
Then all over again.
Grasp foot,
Step in,
Dip,
Release,
Regrip.
Thunderous cheers
And whistles.
Little do they know
How much you’ve battled
To get here.
“Dive In”
Sapphire waters
Calm and placid
Calling to me-
I dive in.
Ripples spread eternally.
Bubbles surround
All is hushed.
In the shallows
Shimmering fish flit
Between the floral plants.
My aching lungs burn
So I return
Back into the ordinary.
“Land of the Free?”
The
White
lady with the
White
hair stood on the sidewalk with her
White
wings outstretched over the
Brown
shuddering child with the
Brown
hair.
the
White
lady smiled radiantly at the
Brown
boy with her
White
pearly teeth and murmured to him
“don’t run into the street; it’s dangerous.”
the
Brown
boy with the
Brown
innocent eyes nodded solemnly.
then the
White
woman pulled her
arm back and struck the
Brown
child,
pushing him into the street.
he scarce had time to yell
before he was swept under the tires of a
White
car.
the
White
woman nodded to herself,
smiling with her long
White
dagger teeth.
she walked back to her
White
house,
the one with the
White
picket fence to drink her
Brown
morning coffee.