Category: 08th

Family is like a Tree

“Family” is old oak with long branches —
That stretch across many places —
And will crumble when one breaks —
And will continue to grow — and never stop —
And family — is everywhere — all around you —
And the pain must be in the breakage —
That could rip apart the family
That kept so many of us connected —
I’ve heard it in the earliest of day —
And the great dead of night —
Family is always around you,
just like old oaks and fresh pines.

St. Mark Lutheran School

8th Grade

blue

dark as the depths of the sea
slow as a deadly glacier
royal, powerful, grounded
cold as an icy blizzard on bare skin

blue is the deepest of sleep, dreamless
blue is the grace of a ballet dancer on stage, nameless
blue is a salty taste on your tongue
blue is steady breathing, calling out in silence
blue is creases crowning eyes of an elder, frameless

unsettling as bruises, beaten badly backwards, black and blue
wicked as the plot of a movie, retching your heart, warping your mind
calm, quiet, in control
shocking as the thunder, preparing for petrifying pops of lightning

blue is mesmerizing paint drenching fingers, now hued
blue is pouring rain, lingers a sombering mood
blue is the calm before the storm
blue darkens the sky towards night
blue is unknown faces in a crowd, untouched and nude

blue drags you down to the beach to watch the waves
‘cause you may only be alive a few more days

Bailey Middle School

8th

Like Elephants

Like elephants
forcing themselves into cardboard boxes,
a vessel desperate to be filled with belonging
snags its fluttering spirit
and plucks away the wings,
consulting society’s step-by-step handbook
for cutting away passionate errors,
slicing off rebellious streaks,
stitching on content and blinding unbiased sight
and throws the corpse
up, up, up,
expecting it to sprout wings and fly.

Bailey Middle School

8

books

open a book and you will find
people and places of every kind;
open a book and you can be
anything you want to be;
open a book
and you can share
wondrous words you find in there
open a book and i will to
you read to me
ill read to you!

bailey middle school

8th

A Thousand Whispers

Like a saddle-shackled horse of old,
the people,
bound and branded into submission,
bend over, tucking their
sunken cheeks
between the spurs grinding beneath their master’s soles
and kiss goodbye their resolve,
because the whiney of a horse is but a whisper
compared to the crack of a whip.

Bailey Middle School

8

Free

In the beginning life was slow, then as we mature it grows
Life is like a river, forever flowing on and on, then one day those days are gone
Poof
Where’d it all go? It’s like it just disappeared in then snow
As I keep on looking and looking for an answer, I find out that i’m just a dancer
I go in circles repeating the same routine, and one day I realize it’s probably in my dreams
I feel like I’ve been suffocated for the majority of my life, sometimes I look down at the knife
What if I end it all right here, but that became abundantly clear
Crystal clear in fact, that I don’t have to kill myself over some rats
One day I realized that they’re not worth my time, all they’re worth is a dime
They can’t ruin me, because all I am is free
Free from the complicated situations, I’m finally free from this suffocation
For once I can breathe on my own, and i can open my eyes and realize what I’ve always known
That I don’t have to take all this pressure from everybody, I am FINALLY free from this child’s body

Bailey Middle School

8th grade

Holocaust

With trumpets call and loud parade,
they praise the hell that they have made.
They do not dare to be aware
of awful things they’ve done this day
Long tongued liars live here now.
To long tongued liars wronged men bow.
Long tongued liars walk the streets.
Long tongued liars in gods seat.

Lying spiders spin their lies
when they say walls don’t have eyes.
Wronged men do just hide their fear
when they say walls don’t have ears.

A nation
caught in devastation
with covered eyes ate the lies
that led to hell’s creation.

Bailey Middle School, AISD

8

The Lonely Island

The lonely island waded in the ocean
Drowned in knobbly sand
Dressed only in broken bottles and rusted treasures
The sun looked wrong on his weary body
No glow
No shine
Just there

A traveler at heart
But with no weight to carry him
He was immovable
A lazy blob on a lazy planet
No feet to walk him
No wings to fly him
Nobody to help him

Everyday though
Pure white birds would fly above him
Almost like angels they looked
He begged for them to stay
To dance in his no longer shiny jewels
And tell him about the world he could never see
They left

Then one stormy day
When not even the island could hear his own pleas of sadness
A ragged bird soared by with feathers the color of dirt
Almost matching the wreckage on the island’s shore
Startled by the noises of the clouds
It dropped something and the island called for it to come back but again nobody heard
It left

The “something” only grew from then on
It became so tall that the island thought it was attached to the sky
A palm tree
Birds came from everywhere to marvel at it
The island became a popular pitstop for them
They would rest in its leaves and chat about foreign lands
They stayed

Bailey Middle School

8th Grade