Kacie Collins

Summer, where are you?
I miss the sun kissing my skin
the wind whispering in my hair-
long lazy days and sleepless nights.
Please come soon. We miss you.

Four long years of studying
Four long years of tests
Four long years of trying to show our best

More importantly,
Four long years of memories
Four long years of laughs
Four long years of friends who were the best.

Now,
Four long years of waiting
Four long years of work
Four long years is up.

Itsy bitsy spiders
Pitch black rooms
Over cheerful clowns
An overbearing sense of doom
Something welling up inside
Something that I can’t place
Something that makes me want to run to a hidden space
Help me, help me – get it away
Anything to keep my fears at bay!

Perhaps they’re the words we’re too nervous to say
The words we should have, would have, and could have said.
Perhaps they’re the thoughts to sacred to say
The thoughts we’re dying to let out but our heart holds away
Perhaps they’re the whispers of a once had been
The wisps of memories and places we can no longer be.

GREEN

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Pedal to the metal
Cruising down the road
Something in the distance
I better take it slow.
Green light fades to yellow
Yellow fades to red
The seconds take forever
Thoughts wander in my head
At last the light blinks to green
And I am off
Me and my machine.

No Going Back

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

That is the last time I will ever have that moment.
There is no way to ever go back and relive that time again.
Each second is exactly that- a second in time.
Nothing that is extravagant or rare- just something that happens;
Over and
Over and
Over again.

Role Model

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Lost Cause

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

To succeed is to complete; to conquer a goal; to reach success.

Miscommunication

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Words, sentences, ideas a jumble
Things I want to say scattered across the page
The right words are pretty good at hiding in amongst my brain
I want to express myself;
I really just don’t know how to say exactly what I mean
No matter what:
they don’t
piece
together
exactly right
Choppy-

Sweet, sweet, summer
The days are long and hot before the sky darkens and I run outside
Into the yard, enveloped in black
The cool grass licking the bottom of my feet and squeezing in between to tickle my toes
Running, running, legs reaching as far as they can, extending to the tips of my feet
the crisp air filling my lungs to the very brims
mouthful after mouthful I gulp it down

Only Forward

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

The truth is there is no going back.
Ever.
No matter how hard we try;
No matter how much we want it;
We need it;
No matter how much we wish for it;
There is no going back.
What’s done is done.
What has happened will be just that-
Something that has happened.
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda”
“It’s not what I wanted”
“I didn’t mean for things to end up this way”
One second that went wrong,
One second that will never come back,
One second that will affect things from here on out.
The only way to change the past is to ignore it, to move on, get over it.
Accept the consequences and Focus on the future instead of trying to change the past
Because there is no going back.
Only forward.

Clothes are clothed in memory
Of places I went
Of people I met
Shoes with the treads worn down
From places I’ve walked
From the places I’ve ran
A wardrobe of clothes
A wardrobe of memories

Words

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

And the silence burns with the things I long to say
Heavy, tense, so thick it’s almost unbearable
The things I plan to say, so each word is perfect
Perfect, because I want, I need you to understand
The words that dance on the end of my tongue
Restless against the back of my teeth

Three, Three, Three

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Three rings of the school Bell
Three O’clock in the afternoon
Three minutes to run to the bus
Three, Three, Three
And then I am free.

Three rings of the school Bell
Three O’clock in the afternoon
Three minutes to run to the bus
Three, Three, Three
And then I am free.

Small fingers
Nimble fingers
(practiced and worked to the bones from their hours of labor)

Small Fingers
Nimble Fingers
(in places where they don’t belong)

Small Fingers
Nimble Fingers
(instead of climbing trees, playing with toys)

Small Fingers
Nimble Fingers
(in the peril of dangerous machines where they shouldn’t be)

Small Fingers
Nimble Fingers

The most amazing feeling is waking up after a warm and cozy night;
Opening my eyes to find myself staring through a window and seeing totally white;
No trees, no branches, no ground, no plants, and just barely the outlines of buildings and cars;
SNOW!
Snow, snow, snow everywhere
Falling, falling, and still falling more
Capturing the sunlight as it falls gracefully down

Papers, projects, homework AH!
Piling, Piling higher still
Almost to the window sill
What to do, when to do it
Better start and get to it!

Tests, Quests, Quizzes, EH!
Study, study harder now
If I want to ace them with a pow
Review the homework, read the notes
If only tests were up to my vote!

The time, The time, The time
Where does it go?
How I need it, need it so

The seconds are slipping
My memory is dripping
With lines I’ve practiced a thousand times.

Each move rehearsed
Hoping it’s not a night I’m cursed
I try with all my might: was it go stage left or stage right?

The murmurs of the crowd
Are restless and loud
My heart rate pounds loud enough to drown out the sound

The curtains are drawn
I stand like a faun

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

You may not know about them, even be aware of them, even think about them, but boy oh, boy, do they know about you. As you silently go about the everyday business of your ordinary life they’re there. Through the smiles, the laugher, the gains, the losses, the beginnings, the ends you silently make their home yours. You probably don’t even know a thing about them, haven’t even heard of them and yet you’re living the life the same place they did theirs.

Untitled

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

They stand around me
Staring
Staring
Staring
To them each crack of the whip is just another laugh
The pain a grand ol’ time
Each Tear that I hold in another crack of laughter they let out
The whip eats away at my skin as the sight of me eats away at their will power
For them to not loose all their minds laughing

By Kacie Collins
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

Countless years ago they collided
Tripping on each other’s feet
Both swore their heart skipped a beat
Aisle twelve between soap and sponge
Both decided to take the plunge
Falling, falling faster
Neither of them had felt the same
Love finally wasn’t just a game
The bells were ringing
Her heart was singing
As their wedding carriage faded with the sun
Anniversaries came and went