We lost our hearts to
Emotions
We lost our freedom to
Quarantine
We lost our friends to
Social DIstancing
We lost our lives to
COVID 19
And what's left?
What's left with our life?
What;s left?
 

I can't remember how me met
so I like to make up fantasies
Because for some reason 
it feels important
to know the beginning of our story
Even if
it's only the start 
I pretend to know

I'd like to think we're soul sisters
And perhaps in another life, twins
maybe we met in orchestra
but I don't think that's it
Qas it our passion for reading
where we had a friend version
of a "meet cute" in our school's 
ridiculously tiny library?
Or was it that class we had together
in which we rarely talked at first
because I was constantly
living in a book
and you had your own friends?
I honestly can't remember

What I do recall is
when we played a whole game of scrabble
and you spelled "deli"
D-E-L-L-Y
but nobody batted an eye
until a boy came up as class ended
and said "what the heck is that?"
it was the joke of the week

Walking into my shelter was terrifying. The room was off a narrow hallway painted a nauseating shade of yellow, blaring down on me as I whisper-sang under my breath. I'd been in there many times before, but this time left me in a nervous jumble. The foldable table decked out with an iPad and the sign-up sheets was thrown against one wall, stickers overflowing along its sides and quiet snickers emanating from the students sitting in the matching gray chairs. I don't remember much about actually being in the room. The panel of judges (aka, a couple teachers and the student directors from our local university) smiled as I sang the part. There wasn't anything in particular I can remember about the singing, just the feeling that my stomach was melting into my winter boots. I stepped out of that room in a thick haze, but a feeling permeated despite my numbness. My voice had rung out like a bell--a tinny, untrained bell, but a bell nonetheless. The notes had hit.

I like to spill my thoughts on paper
And let it bleed.
Drip.
Splash.
I like to curve my letters weird
And swing them
Down.
Up.
I like to show you whats in my head,
But the only way I know how to do that is by
Letting you listen to the chords I’ve come up with,
And read what I’ve written.
Because I cannot word well.
All not at
And I thought it ran through your ears.
In one ear,
Our the other.
And I thought you smiled
Because the sooner I thought you were listening
The sooner I could go away.
I love to ramble on for hours
About anything that comes to mind
Chat,
Speak.
And I can jump from one topic to another
Bounce,
Weeee.
And I never thought you payed attention
Just nodded with my voice.
But then one day you asked me about it.
About something I said yesterday
Week,
Month.
And you said you showed my chords to someone

If I can’t be at home with my family, there’s only one place I’d rather be: my friend Lucas’ house. Lucas is one of my good friends and one of my robotics teammates. Robotics has always been special to me because I’ve learned many things and created many wonderful memories, all in Lucas’ attic.
It was a sunny Sunday morning. I walked up to Lucas’ black front door for the twentieth time in a row. “Go upstairs, they are waiting for you,” Lucas’ mom instructed, and gestured towards the stairs. I hurried to the attic and opened the wooden door. I was temporarily blinded by the sun streaming in through the large windows. A ceiling fan whirred up above, making the attic pleasantly cool. I ran inside and quickly set up my laptop, excited to be with my four best friends, who were standing around a large black table. I knew the next three hours would be the best part of my day.

Swimming:
UP

    DOWN

            ALL AROUND

                Flipping

                Paddling

                Splashing

Diving down D

            E

              E

                 P off the diving board

Water droplets flying through the humid air

Laughter spilling like a majestic waterfall

As refreshing as a popsicle on a hot summer day

When I’m swimming 

UP

    DOWN

             ALL AROUND

 

You texted me, my heart fluttered.
 

Many don't believe it
but we have a voice too.
We have an impact on the world,
What happened to our voices?
It's unfair. Adults push us aside
We have a voice too.
But it's not obvious.
We talk about Lincoln,
Jordan guy,
Rowling author,
What about kids?
We aren't in there.
We have a voice too.

That one dream,
Where you wake up
Fine...

Two months later,
There they are.
Sitting on that simple bench

You walk by
They lookup
"Hi"

You gulp awkwardly
"Hi"