The Giraffe

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Eric drew a cute giraffe. Jim wasn’t having it. It was his turn to draw. He had just gotten out of work and was starving from not eating all day. Now waiting for what seemed like forever for his fish. And then there was Tom his least favorite person in his family already saying something inappropriate about him. He took the crayons and paper. He drew a car, a stick figure in the car holding a gun towards the giraffe, and colored blood on the giraffe. His young cousin Sophie was shocked. She drew X’s over its eyes. Jim had murdered Eric’s cute giraffe.

 

By Levi Hall

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All is Fair in War

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He pulls the cuff on his suit jacket down, checks his silver watch, and looks back up at the children. He’s reading them a book. Taking part in his duties as a fearless leader. Oblivious, he claims, to the conflict occurring inside his empire.

A dark omen consumes his nation.

In moments of privacy he takes deep breaths, panicking from the memory of the lives lost. Reproductions from his decisions to create a mutual enemy between the residents and his bloodline. Someone they’ll unite against.

It’s noon. Time for him to lie to his people. To tell them how their hero has saved the day with his glory and genius.

 

By Erik Sohji

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Play Day

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Two young girls draw and color their scribbles all day. The older teaches the younger about types of colors. And how the problem with being left handed when you color is the stain marks left on your pinky. The younger one noticed.

“Look,” she points at her sister’s dirty blue finger.

“Oh,” the older one responds and licks the smudge off.

“What did it taste like?” the younger one asked.

She thought about it before answering. “It tasted like blue,” she said.

 

By Emma Smith

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He Will Not Divide Us

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He will not divide us.

He does not have enough money to divide us.

He does not have the brains to divide us.

He does not have the friends to divide us.

His position in government isn’t high up enough to divide us.

His hopes and dreams are not strong enough to divide us.

His god is not powerful enough to divide us.

His work has not built a reputation big enough to divide us.

His life is too meaningless to divide us.

His purpose is not great enough to divide us.

He cannot divide us.

HeWillNotDivide.Us

 

By Seth McAllister

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Choosing Work Over Sleep

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The alarm goes off and it wakes Jasmine up but she doesn’t want to get off of her bed. ‘Just a few more minutes,’ she tells herself after every five minutes that pass by. But she can’t stay in bed all day. She can’t stay home. Jasmine has to go to work. She must go. She needs to, she’s told. She goes to work for the money and nothing else. Money for food and rent. Money for the car’s gas and insurance. The money she makes she uses to take herself back to that miserable place. To a place where the boss isn’t really in charge and her coworkers act like children. Jasmine rather stay in bed than go back to that zoo but the alarm keeps going off, telling her that it’s time to go.

 

By Blanca Snow

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Emergency Lane

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In the middle of a deep starless night, I’m driving down the highway when I come across a car in the emergency lane ahead, hazards on. I slow down long before I’m anywhere near the car and I debate what my actions and their possible results might be. The paranoia guides my impulses and as I close distance on the car I opt out of helping this individual out of fear that it’s some illusive robbery scheme taking place at night’s peak. As I drive by I see a woman in tears behind her steering wheel, but I continue to drive, afraid my involvement would backfire. A week later I find out, through the news, that this woman took her life in the woods alongside the highway that night. I could have saved her.

 

By Anonymous Writer

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A Not So Yummy Choice

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In the big rock candy mountain children go and never return. They disappeared into the yummy unknown. No matter what the adults tried to do; no warning signs, no traps, and no fences could scare their children’s curiosity away. Every month another child was lost. The mountain must’ve been eating them whole. Finally, the adults came together to come up with a better plan. Their plan was simple: blow up the mountain. What could go wrong? It rained of rock candy and body parts that day.

 

By Eric Wells

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Corona Shampoo

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A packed party and too much alcohol turn my stomach on me. The fear is embarrassment and humiliation. The bathroom is occupied. I can either revisit the day’s meals and the night’s alcohol in the sink or over the balcony. The kitchen is packed with people ready to watch. The balcony it is. Regretful decision. Poor girl’s night is ruined.

 

By Seth McAllister

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