TREES

Tarkisha Ackward

When I stayed in Arkansas we had many trees in our yard.

I had a lot of brothers and sisters so that meant a lot of creative minds. In one of the trees we built a tree house.

In another one we made a tire swing.

The other trees were good for climbing.

We had fun playing on them every day.

SUDZ N BUBZ

Roman Atkins

So elegantly it floats in the wind.

Oh so soft and fragile.

Easy to pop and destroy.

A favorite toy to many children around the world.

THE LEAF

Russ Babcock

Two bugs on a leaf tangoing.

Spinning round and round.

Where it lands no one knows where the larva grows.

THE WAVES

Russ Babcock

In the bathysphere a large metal dome,

Going down deeper and deeper into the ocean.

Seeing the bubbles washing up past the window of the dome,

a lever and a chair.

But as the bubbles rush up they pop almost midway,

swirling around the sphere

QUE SON HOMBRES???

Diana Del Real

Me pregunto que es un hombre,

El que mantiene una familia

El que la respeta y le da todo lo que una mujer se merece

O sera que un hombre....

Es el que maltrata a su mujer

El que le pega, le miente, la engana, el que se enborracha todos los dias para sentirse mas macho que los demas y que no le llamen “el mandilon”

O acaso sera que un hombre es el que nace con un chicote colgando?

Y no importa como sea bueno o malo,

Guapo o feo, gordo o flaco

Pero nomas por tener dos bolas colgando

Junto al garrote se dice ser un hombre!!!

Y poreso yo me pregunto…

Cual es el hombre???



THE PEAR TREE

Kaiya Fletcher

It was the summer time

My mom and I were cleaning up the back yard,

when we discovered a pear tree.

My mom thought it was just the most amazing thing in the world.

I just saw it as a regular tree.

But afterwards, we took pears off

and they were delicious.

TREE HOUSE

Tana Gaines

My uncle was always building something because he was construction worker.

He had some extra time on his hands so he built a tree house for us.

We tried so many different things in the tree house.

We made use of the tree house.

We made it look like a real house.

We were little daredevils and jumped from the tree house into the pool.

Sometimes we took our dinner up there.

We didn’t always like what he made so we threw it out the window.

There was not much to our tree house but we made it fun.

SHOES

Jenetta Haines

Shoes hanging from a mirror

The reflection captured on the windshield

Coping every motion of the swinging child’s shoes

But who’s? A lost loved one?

A child charished and held dear?

All could be true but

Which ever is the true

Reason they are there

I will never know

As the car gets older

The memories fade

But not completely

Not yet anyway

But once the true owner

Of those memories pass

The story gets jumbled

The memories not quite the same

But what will happen to those shoes

Hanging from the rear-view mirror?

We may never know



TREE

Jenetta Haines

Gorgeous Apple Tree

Standing so tall above me

Shading me nicely

STANDING IN A JUNGLE

Jenetta Haines

Lost. Confused.

I see birds, monkeys, frogs, snakes.

Trees create a canopy above me.

Beautiful colors in the plants that surround me. Danger! I see a big jungle cat.

Quick up a tree before it eats me.



SITTING AND THINKING

Margaret Harris

Sitting, sitting, sitting and

Thinking, thinking, thinking

Of a way to say what I want to say

Sitting, sitting, sitting and

Thinking, thinking, thinking

Of how to get my feelings out of the way

Sitting, sitting, sitting and

Thinking, thinking, thinking

Of how to figure out what I need

I’m done sitting and thinking because

What I need is you

FAN

Katie Herrick

With it in your hand, just a wave and it cools you down.

It goes from stick like to shell with the flick of a wrist.

Used more back in the day than it is now.

Some people may imitate it on a hot day,

But it is only a piece of paper.

LITTLE SHOES

Katie Herrick

There they are swinging in front of me, Swaying from side to side as I drive. all the memories made in them. I think of my little boy who can no longer fit into them. I think of him every time I see them. Now no more memories will be made in them. I see them hanging there, swinging and swaying from side to side with every car ride. Sometimes I feel that as I am watching them they are watching me, too. They are hanging there to bring back memories. The good and the bad and any others that I ever had. There they are.

CLUB HOUSE

Katie Herrick

After a big storm I went to my backyard to play. I got to the backyard only to find that one of our trees got struck by lightning. I went in side to tell my mom. She went outside after I told her to take a look. When she seen it she told me that we could make a club out of the fallen tree. So we did and it was what I thought was the best club ever.

TREE INCIDENT

Adrian Holguin

I remember a tree that me and my brother climbed on. It was in front of my house in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The tree was at least twelve feet tall and my brother and I would always jump on it and climb on it. All of a sudden the tree fell sideways and we were scared, so we ran away. My mom saw the whole thing and she yelled at us but we didn’t get a whoopin.

I MISS MY BROTHER

Booder Johnson

It’s been two months since he killed my brother.

I still can’t believe that he’s gone.

I know that I have to be strong for my family.

I keep trying to tell myself that it’s going to get better,

but the truth is that it’s not.

Everything is just gonna be different. I hate the woman that killed him,

but all the hate in the world is not gonna bring him back.

I’m beginning to think that there is no such thing as justice.

We had court yesterday, and the detective finally caught my brother’s killer.

They sentenced her to death.



BABY SHOES

Janae Lovely

Shoes hanging in the car on the rearview mirror.

Baby shoes.

Some mom or dad put their babies’ shoes on the rearview mirror.

It reminds them of their baby.

The shoes look old like they have been passed down through generations.

Generations of babies.

One pair of shoes.

CONCRETE FAIRY

Jenae Lovely

A broken fairy trying to rise up out of the hardships she is in.

The concrete.

She’s trying to fly away to a better place.

To get away.

She looks tired of everything she has been through.

MY TREE

Jenae Lovely

I was climbing up this tree in my front yard. It was a big tangled tree. I used to climb it every day. One day I was climbing In the tree and my foot got stuck, and I fell and hit my face on the ground. I landed on my wrist and I sprained it. It hurt so badly. Everybody surrounded me, and went crazy but in the end I was fine.



WHEN I WAS YOUNGER

Michale Martin

When I was younger I had a big, old tree in my front yard. My cousins and I used to go outside and put a water hose on the roots. It would make mud falls that came down the hill and we would play in it. What a great tree.

BUBBLES

Crystal Moon

Orbs of multicolored beauty,

Going up and down in the wind,

But with just a poke the orb does go,

Never to be seen in its uniqueness again.

With a blow they are back,

Little rainbows flowing and making children smile…

In all their transparency.

WAR

Crystal Moon

Fighting for my life,

Not knowing what awaits,

The sounds of the guns make me weep,

To think he will never see his wife,

It hurts to know I took a human life.

NAILS ON A CHALKBOARD

Crystal Moon

It makes my teeth grind,

When I hear the screech,

It makes me angry when it reaches my ear,

I think my teeth are going to disappear.

CELLO

Crystal Moon

Pushing, Pushing, Don’t mess up;

They are all watching, B flat, A sharp, I can’t remember.

It’s all gone.

It just failed my recital, and now I have to find what I can do,

So I know who I want to be.

FAIRY CHALK

Crystal Moon

Seeing the true nature of one’s soul,

I am not alone,

We find it beautiful,

To see how many of us have…

Inner fairies.

THE SAD HORSE

Yennifer Pineda

Look at the sad horse

Waiting for his food

Because he hasn’t ate

Since the dead of his owner.

BLUE WATER

Yennifer Pineda

That water is blue,

and the sky is too

I would like to

be there to enjoy

that beautiful place.

I would swim there

and invite a friend.

Later we watch the sunset.

And we would visit

that place everyday.

PARADISE

Jessica Ramsdell

Paradise.

The small, peaceful, secluded island covered with black sand and tall palm trees.

Waves crash vigorously into the black sand, cooling them down.

A Hawaiian island, a mountain.

Beautiful.

I would love to visit there.

THE SHELL

Jessica Ramsdell

Home to a Hermit Crab.

Like a little tornado.

Hear the ocean in its bigger brother.

Brown and White.

Concealed with a small hole.

Found on ocean beaches.

Smooth, but with small bumps and coils.

SpongeBob’s Telephone.

Protects inhabitants from predators.

THE BRANCH

Jessica Ramsdell

I was six. Playing a game at my friend’s house outside. I was moving a branch. As I let go, it hit her in the back of the head. It didn’t hurt her but it scared her. She screamed. I started laughing. She got mad but when she saw me rolling in the grass laughing hysterically, she couldn’t help but laugh. Her mom came outside and wanted to know why she had screamed. We were laughing to hard to tell her. When we finally calmed down enough to tell her, she didn’t think it was funny.

MY TREE STORY

Michael Tevis

A few weeks ago, I went with a few friends to Oakland, Topeka. There was a tall tree somewhat deep inside the trails with a long, but sturdy looking vine hanging from it.

Cory and Mike, two of my friends, happened to be with me. Cory, thinking it’d be a funny joke, told me to climb the vine to the top. I said ‘hell no’, because I knew the vine wasn’t as strong as it looked.

Cory insisted, though, and he said he’d break my fall if I climbed it. At about halfway to the top, roughly 20 feet or so, the vine snapped, and I fell all the way to the ground. Cory, who wasn’t paying attention by this point, was unable to break my fall.

I landed on one foot and crippled to the ground. Not only did it hurt my foot, but it hurt my whole backside, because that’s where most of the impact went. It almost broke my leg as well. This is probably the last time I climb a tree from a vine.

OLD OAK TREE

Briannah Williams

Green, red, yellow

Your leaves so vivid

I love how they blow

Along with the wind

Your branches so long

There hover over the horizon

Your trunk so mighty

Thick and strong

I spend my nights

In your company

Oh how I love this

Big, old oak tree