Untitled

Erika Petersen

Untitled

Ella Bagchi

Cold, thin air whisked through my nostrils and sliced across my face like the blade of a grim reaper. I could feel my toes numbing as I trudged upward in the snow. Gusts of snowy wind howled in my ears like a haunted chorus of wolves. The storm threatened to throw me off the mountain, into the sharp rocks so far below. I felt the storm and my own fear like liquid fire in my bones, seeping into my shivering veins. Jetstreams of ice pelted my eyes, making them water. My legs burned, but I kept climbing, fighting the unstoppable forces pushing me back. I kept climbing through the treacherous terrain ahead of me. I kept climbing the mountain, carrying the fear in my soul. I kept climbing because I had to. And then, suddenly, everything stopped. The howling wind became a soft murmur, a memory of what it once was. Sparkling snow fell sparingly and gracefully in calm flurries. My body ceased to burn, because I had stopped climbing. I had reached the peak of the mountain. I inhaled the fresh, still air and took in the panoramic postcard around me. The aggressively gray sky had melted into a serene blue that touched the majestic mountains surrounding me. A river weaved through the mountains, glazed over with a veneer of ice. I was enveloped in a surreal, freeing silence. Warmth bubbled in my heart up into my face, and I smiled uncontrollably. Frozen in time, I had never felt so warm.

Sprinkled Doughnut

Jakob Womer

Sprinkled Donut

Desiree Bailey

A donut without sprinkles is just a frosted donut

a donut with sprinkles is a kids favorite order. 

Drizzled in strawberry flavored frosting

purchase a twelve pack and you become a hoarder.

Coffee on the side to compliment your donut 

all together you have a morning idea of a meal.

Add some sugar to the cup and you have some taste

Put them together and you may seal the deal.

To start off your morning class you get an idea of it

A morning that’s calm and is filled with excitement.

Soon you look down to see that your smile is gone

Your teacher has just handed out your next assignment.

Ghosting / Tyler Murphy

Wednesday morning,

Jaxx Parsons

Sitting in my well worn office chair, she stares at her half-empty room and what’s left of her bed. A few old blankets left on the end. The pillows they couldn’t take with them left to collect dust until she comes back for the holidays. They fiddle with Garlic, a white goat their dad bought them when they were eight. His legs shriveled from the years of make-believe and pretend adventures. A yellow eye lost to one of the cats. Though they would eventually sew the eye up they never stopped feeling guilty about it. 

Tomorrow she’ll be at college, 186 miles away from home. Away from the safe confides of their bed and her weighted blankets. Where they drank their mom’s hot chocolate. Where they collected bugs like the ones in her mother’s office. Where they found Nymo and Oscar and where their dad taught them how to crochet. They twist Garlic’s ear and their bottom lip quivered. Fighting back tears.