What if you slept? - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Submitted by Erica Alfonzetti)

What if you slept?
and what if in your sleep you dreamed?
and what if in your dream you went to heaven
and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower?
and what if, when you wake, you had the flower idea?


The Dead - Billy Collins (Submitted by Kayla DePerno)

The dead are always looking down on us,
they say,
while were are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
they are looking down through the glass-bottom boats,
of heaven as they row themselves slowly through eternity.
They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,
And when we lie down in a field or on a couch,
Drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon,
They think we are looking back at them
which makes them lift their oars and fall silent and wait,
like parents,
for us to close our eyes.


The Cold Within - Unknown (Submitted by Katie Bottge)

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In black and bitter cold
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first man held his back,
For on the faces around the fire
He noticed one was black.

The next man looking cross the way
Saw not one of his church,
He couldn't bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes
His coat he gave a hitch,
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

And the last man of this forlorn group
Did naught except for gain,
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in Death's still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn't die from the cold without.
They died from the cold within.


The Magic Treasure Chest - Hellon (Submitted by Stephanie Sommer)

Me and my sister Kate
pretend that we're asleep
When mummy kisses and tucks us in
daddy coming back for one last peek.

Then...at last...phew!
they finally close the door
We jump quickly out of bed
tip-toeing across the floor.

To the magic treasure chest
where toys come alive at night
Soldiers marching in a row
whoopee!...we cry in delight.

Dolls hold little tea parties
cars drive by themselves
books mysteriously jump down
from their place upon the shelf.

Lions roar, hyenas laugh
a monkey swings around
We listen in amazement
to these jungle sounds.

Then it's back to bed for us
another night with our magic chest
Mum and dad come back in the morning
wondering who could have made this mess.


Javier Rafael Desosa - Melissa See (Submitted by melissa See)

I'm alone now.
"What else is new?"
I asked the empty room.

"Nada." I told myself.
My family left me.
We all came from Puerto Rico;
Together like patches on a quilt;
Only to fade away like photographs deprived of light...slowly.
That was almost three years ago.

The patches split apart;
Being thrown away at different points in time;
Until now.
I'm the only Desosa left for miles.

I started to count on family; of another kind.
Buyers and dealers.
Suppliers and demanders.
Bryce and Eryn.

Eryn. The girl who gave me her last $50;
Just for a taste of crystal.
The pitiful, little baby she was...and the damaged swan she was becoming.

Bryce. The boy who became so much more than a buyer;
He was so much more than a friend; even.
He was my brother.
I never told him that...I never told Eryn she was a swan either.
I loved them both.
And I still do.
But they're gone now.

I settled myself on to the old couch as slowly as possible...
Just to hear the springs groan like an old man...one last time;
As the poison that won the war in the sky came down to meet me and find its way
through my veins.

Death came quickly
I fell back even deeper in to the couch;
Thinking it could swallow me up if it wanted to.
I'd welcome it. E'd deserve it.
It would save America an autopsy.


Teen Poem - Allishia M. Delacruz (Submitted by Stephanie Cardante)

I woke up to a day I didn't expect, to find my dad had already left.
I had to call him and tell him it was my birthday, he said 'thought it was on Monday.'
I talked all day on the phone, but in reality I still felt alone.
All my life I wished and prayed to be with my dad on my birthday.
He said he'd be home at 12.
I didn't think he meant 12 at night, and my birthday was gone and out of sight.
Not a card, not a cake, just the feeling of being alone, all day at home.
I guess wishes sometimes don't come true,
but I'll always remember on that day I wasn't with you...