Hartford High School

The woods are something you just can't comprehend.
From a distance, you see their greeen tops- perhaps like hats covering an ugly face below. You see the colors, flashing..
Red. Yellow. Gold. Are they warnings? Are they welcoming signs?
People have entered, and returned without scratches. Others,
have never been found.
Do they choose their victims? Or do their victims choose them?
The calls of the crows, bellowing you to stay out? Or asking you to come in?
Come in.... Come in...
If you dare.

The darkening sky
Closes another day
As it does every day.
The vanishing light
Leaves the silhouetted trees
Standing in their monolithic glory,
Giants sending the day
On it’s final voyage into the unknown.
And we are left
In the empty void of darkness
Enveloping all light
And sealing it away
For hours, until
The dawn of a new day approaches.

Self-explanatory content

By Sally Tucker
Hartford High School, Grade 10

I hate
Comparison
I dread
The deep
Judgment
Of difference
I’m irritated
How it
Winds through
Society
Sinking into
Our automatic
thoughts
I loathe
Any second
Glance
That isn’t
Quick acceptance
In my head
Even the
Angry words
I am writing
It bothers me
How you might
Be using
Any negative
Words about
This poem
Because
You're comparing
It to others
Right now
And you
Don’t think
There’s anything
Wrong with that

As i walk down these halls for the last time I rmemeber what has happened and what possilbly could happen in the coming years. The first year went by a little slow but we all made it through. Classes went by a slower the we normaly intended and we didn't really know what was goin on. The second year you moce on step up you kin of know what your doin and where your going. Your bigger then the 6th graders but your still below the 8th. The biggest season of my life in basket ball. The team went 17-1 with the only loss goin to indian river. My whole team has togeth since 2nd grade. Then finally 8th grade your king of the school you know the school and you know most of the teachers.

Doors

By Josie Kerrigan
Hartford High School, Grade 10

Doors open
Doors close.
Doors creak
Doors squeak.
Doors are entryways
Doors are dead ends.
They whisper
They yell.
Doors are big
Doors are small.
They protect
They unveil.
Doors share secrets
Doors keep secrets.
Doors open
Doors close.

At the end

By Noah Detzer
Hartford High School, Grade 12

So soon it ends
in one year
everything will change.
everything.

All will leave
Some will succeed.
Some will fail.
Some will be left behind.
Some I may cross paths with
but
All will leave.

In a sense
it's a reboot.
a new beginning.
a success.
a new way of living.
the first day of the rest of your life.
so they say often
repeating it as though it is law.

Some parts are good
leaving behind
the fake,
the plastic,
the insecure,
the immature.

Yet some are far worse
leaving the best friends
the ones who really mattered
the ones you love
for a new life somewhere else.

At the end
all of the struggles,
the successes,
the pain,
the sorrow,
the sadness,
is rendered moot.

At the end
everything changes.

My Childhood Memory

By Kelsey Johnson
Hartford High School, Grade 11

The night I lost my sister I felt like a part of me had disappeared into thin air. She was like the second half of me that I never knew that I had, even though she was a year older than I.
We had just moved into our new house in Wilder from Windsor and were adjusting to the new change. My parents had just then put us in our own bedrooms. Ever since we were born, we had been sharing the same bedroom. Then, it didn’t seem like a big difference. I mean, we were still right next to each other, so what was the big deal, right?
Well, I didn’t know it then, but it was a big difference.
One day, I was getting ready for school and she was lying on the couch. Mom had said that Kristen was sick and couldn’t go to school that day. I shrugged it off; I figured that it was a common cold, that anyone could get it. But when I got home, she was still lying there. I remember she looked so pale that it scared me.

Loaf of Bread

By Justinah Duhaime
Hartford High School, Grade 12

my fingertips
slowly stroke
the surface of your wavy slices

rising and falling amid stippled complexions of green and white
mold

each puffy cluster arrayed like starlight
echoing their brilliance down the crisp ocean of your crust

I want to run away

By Sally Tucker
Hartford High School, Grade 9

I want to run away
From the intense swirling judgment
From people not accepting anyone else
Not knowing any opinion but their own
I want to run away
From the disastrous news stories
Scrolling across the blinking screens
From the bickering countries' arguments
Interfering, complicating things
I want to run away
From the popularity contests
Roaming high school hallways
The media blasting into our brain
The advertisements forcing down our throats
I want to run away
From drugged up, medicated role models
Polluted rivers, global warming
Companies creating new entertainment devices
While thousands go hungry each night
From this animal eating, TV-watching culture
I want to run away
From fighting, anger and hate
From stick-thin girls thinking they are fat
Love classified as right or wrong, no in between
From teens cutting, puking, starving themselves
Drinking, smoking, ruining their bodies for fun
From dense, impenetrable, dim judgment
I want to run away

Remember the Words "I Love You"

By Sally Tucker
Hartford High School, Grade 9

Remember the first snow
The warmth of being inside
While its pouring out
Remember that day
They smiled your way
And your heart exploded
The long talks with whomever
Sneaking out of class
And seeing you’re not the only one
Laughing so hard
You can’t think of stopping
Feeling happy starring

Happiness

By Sally Tucker
Hartford High School, Grade 9

Happiness.
It's being full without eating anything
It's wanting to scream with a sore throat
It's having energy to dance, sing, love
When you should be sleeping, crying, dying

Happiness.
It's not knowing what you want, but knowing it's out there
It's feeling beautiful, without seeing your reflexion in the mirror
It's having enough and more to share, teach, give
It's seeing that all you want is to stay like this forever

Happiness.
It's standing at the foot of the ocean
It's holding someone tight beside you
It's knowing how good life is and how much you'd loose without it
It's praying, leaping, crying, needing, loving

That feeling you get when you fill with energy or hope
That thing that makes you smile, laugh, sing
That passion and everlasting giddiness, that love
That part of your day you live for, the beauty
That's it.
Happiness.

Happiness

By Sally Tucker
Hartford High School, Grade 9

Happiness.
It's being full without eating anything
It's wanting to scream with a soar throat
It's having energy to dance, sing, love
When you should be sleeping, crying, dying

Happiness.
It's not knowing what you want, but knowing it's out there
It's feeling beautiful, without seeing your reflexion in the mirror

Girls feel like they need to do anything to be popular.
I would know; I used to be one of them.
According to some schools, you need at least these three things to become popular:
1. You have to have the "I'm so much better than you, so why bother trying" attitude.
2. You have to have the popular football boyfriend.
3. And you MUST have the Look, and a lot of girls don't have it.

Losing Weight

By Kelsey Johnson
Hartford High School, Grade 10

Girls feel like they need to do anything to be popular.
I would know; I used to be one of them.

According to some schools, you need at least these three things to become popular:
1. You have to have the "I'm so much better than you, so why bother trying" attitude.
2. You have to have the popular football boyfriend.