The Free Bird Soars Through the Blue#1 Sky

by Angela Guo

The free bird soars through the Blue#1 sky

Admiring her spotless wings of tie-dye

The free bird gazes at the Red#40 horizon

Thinking, “Oh, what a fabulous, fine fortune.”

The free bird dips and scratches the Blue#2 Sea

Remaining lost in her pure ecstasy

The free bird inspects her pretty rainbow feathers

And now by a small tiny little worry, she is tethered

The free bird, baffled by her discolored plumage,

Returns to the Blue#2 Sea

The free bird’s little scratch has caused a leakage

No longer is her panorama so perfectly pretty

The free bird asks Him

“Dear Lord, what have I done?”

With a curious, crooked smile, He replies

“Questions are liked by no one.”

The free bird returns to her Blue? sky

But no longer does she admire her wings of tie-dye

The free bird examines the Red? horizon

Soon the glowing sun will be risin’

The free bird flaps back to the leakage once more

Wondering why the Blue? sea flows so imperfectly

The free bird leans down and opens the door

The water clearing her eyes of deceitful debris

The free bird rubs her eyes a bit too vigorously

And now she opens them to a sight not-so-sightly

Confined by metal bars the bird must stand

Her life, her world, in reality not grand

The caged bird squawks frightfully

“Why, I am not so free!”

He dangles a Yellow#5 seed, saying

“Eat this, my dear pretty.”

Poetry Slam videos for 4/10 Meeting

Please don’t watch these before tomorrow’s meeting if you’re in the club! If you’re not, enjoy this selection of amazing and hilarious poetry slam performances.

Pretty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wJl37N9C0

OCD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnKZ4pdSU-s

What Kind of Asian Are You? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoP0ox_Jw_w

Dear Straight People https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5frn8TAlew0

A Letter to Sarah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwNiYFlHmWs

Elegy to Childhood

by Maya Asregadoo

Day after day marked off of the calendar

Endless ticking of a clock

School, job

life

Make it stop, make it stop

Sticky-sweet apple juice on my fingers

Cracker crumbs on my lips and

Wet soil packed onto my pants and

Gravel stuck between the cracks of my

Shoes

My mother shook her head in

Exasperation but she still

Smiled with secret pleasure

Days devoted to learning and play

In equal measure Continue reading

January/February Prompts

This month’s prompts are:

Tell us about the experience of being outside, looking in — however you’d like to interpret that.

The Other Side by Christian Theodossy

Write about fear or being lost.

Time by Angela Guo

Thoughts Before Sleep by Nick Kaufman

Spiders by Alan Osmundson

Isolation: the Only Truth by Jack Joseph

Describe the one decision in your life where you wish you could get a “do-over.” Tell us about the decision, and why you’d choose to take a different path this time around.

Write a post that includes dialogue between two or more people — other than you.

You’re at the beach, lounging on your towel, when a glistening object at the water’s edge catches your eye. It’s a bottle — and yes, it contains a message. What does it say?

Valentine’s Day

Lantern Festival by David Xie

Dangerous Love by Maya Asregadoo

Untitled by Michael Lutzker