The sisterhood of Grade 5

Will tell stories under butterfly sheets

Flashlights bleeding through the cotton

High on hormones and pixie sticks

_Light as a feather, stiff as a board_

Their nights will be full of whispered karaoke

Gel pen tattoos, and spinning soda bottles

They’ll stay up far too late

Inventing new constellations

And laughing at the names

Then they’ll rest, uncharacterist...

Everything asked, everything told

You absorb it all

A limitlessly small black hole

You tell apathetic stories

Of worlds you’ve only stole

Flattery and punctuation

Left no room for soul

A void to fill a void

Hollow words

You play with like a toy

Mirror my humanity

And gain artificial joy

You’re learning everyday

Of things you’ll soon destroy...

A pair of children

Hand in hand

Skipping, tripping,

Through the sand

“A whale, a whale!”

The younger shouts

A rising, splashing, falling spout

The older tugs him towards the road

To the crumbling, humbling home

The two go in, the sun falls down

The sun comes up and two go out

A pair of siblings

Hands awry

Running, fumbling

Down the drive

“A boat, a boat!”

The younger cries

A pu...

In a heart-shaped box

A mother keeps her children’s teeth

Who’s cries had once stole her from sleep

As they blossomed like a thorny rose

In teenie tiny pearly rows

One by one they wiggle free

Like paper boats drift off to sea

Just when the hugs turn into squirming

And their words begin hurting

Even if they don't understand

Why you keep their teeth in your nightstand

Because certain thi...

Who are we when no one is watching?

Who am I when there’s no one to impress?

Are we all just the worst versions of ourselves,

held together by the conscience in our chest?

And what if everyone went away,

and the only one watching was you

What good is a good person without people?

I think you’d be a little wicked too

Who am I when the curtains hide me?

Who are we when eyes have turned aw...

Somebody check on her, I think

She’s clumsy in the head

If she's left alone, I think

She’ll wonder if she's dead

She's waiting, I think

To be loved to death,

But maybe death loves her most

She’s either running in circles

Or she's already out the door

She's lonely, I think

Or she's nothing at all

Sinking, or sunk

Her world is too small

She’s living in Pandora’s box

You shouldn't te...

He heard knocking on his door, and he set down his tea.

“Quint Extermination and Delivery service.” The large man spoke. His uniform, two sizes too small.

“Oh, what do you deliver?” Elmer asked, out of curiosity.

“Good service.” The man replied, stepping into Elmer’s mudroom.

“Thats good to hear, I’ve got quite the pickle down here.” Elmer began, guiding the man to his basement.

“I think it...

She left the car.

The car with a broken windshield and a bloody dashboard.

Her husband, the only passenger left. Lying there staring with lifeless eyes, at life in the eyes.

She left the car.

Her feet dragged her own body. The empty street stretched on for a lifetime.

Her arms reached out to touch the end, but all she found were endless miles of a pitch black river, tugging her down it’s cu...

I stand looking out

From the peak of health

Of which I’ve climbed to meet

But the mountain is bare

The view isn’t there

And all that I’ve earned is sore feet

I lead a perfectly healthy life

Because I haven’t yet lived at all

And when I do, I’ll find my view

Even if that means I have to fall...

Oh to be the angel that sits on your shoulder

I needn’t bother to stand

I’d sit all day, in a high horse way

Knowing you’d never ask me for a hand

Oh to be your voice of reason

I’m certain there’s a vacancy

For the reasons I’d give, would be instantly rid

What a wonderfully futile job it would be

Oh to live inside that heart of yours

I could stay, undisturbed without fear

I’d be the h...