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Project Overview Pen Street City of Poems is funded by the Berks County Community Foundation and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Guidance and support was also provided by South Central PaARTners at Millersville University and Barrio Alegr a Along with this anthology a number of free workshops were provided by featured poets Originally planned to be public events at the locations of partnering organizations workshops went virtual in light of health guideline restrictions on social gatherings Pop up poetry performances in public spaces were converted to poetry videos posted shared and viewed across social media platforms More than 20 excerpts of featured poems were transformed into art installations for the windows and walls of partnering businesses in downtown Reading Editing planning design and community outreach was provided by Anthony Orozco Maya Serres and Marci Nelligan Visual art was created by Tracy Soto Juan Carlos Ruiz Jr Theron Cook and Jean Ester The cover photo was provided by Manny Coombs All artistic works that appear in this anthology are the intellectual property of the credited creator The authors own all rights to their works and this anthology is not for commercial production Any further use of the authors work as it appears in this anthology or otherwise altered is not permitted without permission of the author

3 Page Foreword In February 2020 we put out a call for poems that capture the essence of Reading Pa or reveal stories and memories from the city More than 50 poets submitted work and this anthology features nearly 100 of their poems As hoped for poets interpreted the prompt broadly and loosely In this collection Reading is viewed from the perspectives of college professors mechanics septuagenarians middle school students Spanish speakers former and current Berks County poet laureates songwriters rappers and people who do not consider themselves poets The work ranges from songs to memoir and reflect the diverse experiences and realities of local writers Though styles and subject matter vary greatly from one poem to the next four overarching themes appear in the poets work Many poems were firmly rooted in Place highlighting the physical spaces which writers inhabit where they come from where they want to be and the landmarks that shape their lived experience Through Stories poets shared their secrets their trauma their healing and their memories The poets in this anthology have always had a voice this anthology amplifies their words and records their stories for posterity Many writers meditated on the precious and sometimes fickle thing of Love They examined the element that inexplicably binds one person to another the phenomenon that can lead to elation admiration and sometimes heartbreak Writers also documented the Tribes by which they identify themselves and others This may mean a common ancestry a shared mission or even rejecting expectations of a group establishing a tribe of a single individual One purpose of this project is to showcase the talent in this city in the year 2020 through poetry visual art community workshops and art installations Another purpose is to share the restorative power of art The publication of this anthology comes at a time of a global pandemic of the coronavirus also known as COVID 19 National and statewide lockdown orders a constant underlying anxiety and social distancing are part of the contemporary zeitgeist While this pandemic has changed society in many negative ways including postponing or transforming the many various poetry workshops planned as part of this project there has been at least one positive change Our memories of the city social and romantic intimacy our stories of overcoming challenges and practicing compassion all of the things that define the human experience are more valuable than ever Anthony Orozco resident artist anthology curator

4 Page Table of Contents PLACE Dear City By Hope Sullivan 08 No Es Un Campo By Adorelis Medina 10 Penn Street Poetica By Jayne Relaford Brown 11 Monopoly By Emily Hayes Whittle 13 Red Temple By Brady Kull 15 Home in the Flood Plain By Elizabeth Stanley 16 Walking to Work By Sandra Fees 18 1415 Moss By Stormy Russell 19 North 8th By Stormy Russell 20 A Woman from Reading By Morgan Thomas 21 Let My Words Be Not In Vain By Adorelis Medina 22 Reading Pennsylvania By Fadi Acra 23 The Sunroom By Heather H Thomas 24 Windsor Street Washline By Mary Arguelles 27 The Soap and Whiskey Bridge By Patrick Klimcho 28 in this present still being By Ruby Mora 29 The Enchanted Forest By S Rose 30 the other By Tony Veloz 31 Me Mirrors and Leaves By Xavier Care 35 The Park By Nelson De La Cruz 37 Profiteering By Tony Veloz 39 Philadelphia Poe and the Basement By Ashley R Jones 40 While Sitting on the Stoop By Noah Ayala 41 Last Phone Booth in Reading By Brian James 43 Sign By Adam Richter 44 Where I m From By Sandra Fees 46 Looking Forward To Getting Back By Michael Macera 47 A Girl Reading By Heather H Thomas 48 I m From A Place Where By David Nazario 51 LOVE Self Love By Tasha Santiago 54 Time Is Everything By Kareem Cade 55 Nitakupenda Milele By Adorelis Medina 57 Love in Portuguese By Morgan Thomas 58 It s You By Odalys Barajas 59 She By DayQuan Williams 60 I Love You By Kareem Cade 61 Your Love is Like Jazz By Morgan Thomas 63

5 Page LOVE cont Lust of the Heavens By Ivan Misiura 64 Trapped inside By Odalys Barajas 65 Red By Julie Stopper Sofia Mish 67 Erin By Lyn Lessig 69 Vivien By Lyn Lessig 71 Uncovered By Valois Joubert 73 CHASM By Elizabeth Stanley 74 A Peak at Love By Xavier Care 75 Let It Be By Roman Ciervo 76 Love yourself By Odalys Barajas 77 STORIES Shiver By Julie Stopper Sofia Mish 79 Me or You In The Mirror By Hector De Jesus 88 the biological basis of sex By Robin Gow 90 Ineffable By Ivan Misiura 92 Asylum Thwarted By Sandra Fees 93 Letter To My Father By Aviyon Workman 94 Mam By Jules Grace 95 A Girl Named Nina First Verse By Norma Tamayo 96 Squirrel By S Rose 97 Suit of Survival By Maricelys Ruiz 98 Screw Up by Joshua Surita 99 Things have changed By Annalis Ortega 100 Untitled By Maricelys Ruiz 101 Working for the Opposition By Nelson De La Cruz 102 Words By Chris Daubert 103 A Poem for Poe By Ashley R Jones 104 I Wonder By Joshua Surita 105 Another Day By Chris Daubert 107 Stranger By Ivan Misiura 108 Circo de Soltera By Jules Grace 109 Land of the Free By DayQuan Williams 110 Life We Living In By Bruce Williams Jr 111 Hope By Xavier Care 113 Mi F By Virna Qui ones 114 notes from an almost you 4 By Ruby Mora 115 A Stranger in the City in Four Parts By Brian James 116 i hope to have a stand By Robin Gow 118 today is vivid By Roby Mora 120 TRIBES Narradores de Cuentos By Daniel Egusquiza 122

6 Page TRIBES cont Let the Poets In By Craig Czury 123 Better Place by Nelson De La Cruz 124 Untitled By Jos Garcia 125 Black Boys Do Cry By Demetrius Candido Portalatin 126 Take a Stand By DayQuan Williams 128 I Am By Carmen Booker 130 The Color Black By Tracy Portalatin 131 Orgullo By Maricelys Ruiz 132 Without Your Permission By Joshua Surita 133 Unqualified By Lisa De La Cruz 135 Unidos Pero this one By Jules Grace 138 The Weaver By Lyn Lessig 139 A Teacher s Heart By Kristen Thiele 141 Remember By Joshua Fasig 142 Together By Dr Phillip Jeffrey Tietbohl 143 The Proprietor By Ed Terrell 144 Railroad Familiars By Marilyn LT Klimcho 145 BWPWBWB By Anthony Orozco 146

7 Page PLACE

8 Page Dear City By Hope Sullivan Dear city You taught me how to love People on street corners Strangers on the bus The unfortunate the strong People who showed me that life moves on And that you gotta be resilient Dear city You taught me how to love a person more than myself Handle infatuation even though dating is difficult as hell And damn did I fall in love With a boy whose eyes shone as bright at the Pagoda When my life got rough He always held me close kept me sober We explored your streets together Skating down Penn he tried to make me a better Person And he succeeded I never expected he was exactly what I needed Dear city You taught me heartbreak When my life fell apart around me And my boy left me You helped me get my head on straight I could only hang on to hope Because you showed me things get better Through the lives of your people heck even through the weather The sun always shines again Dear city You ve forever changed me The people I met here some of them saved me I learned that there s more than loneliness and insecurity Your resilience showed me I don t have to worry And dear city I ll never forget you I swear when I m halfway across the world I will always remember you You ll stay with me The lessons I learned will never leave my side I ll carry a piece of you with me So while this may be goodbye Since I m going to move on I want you to know how much I appreciate you And I pray that you ll be strong

9 Page Reading I know it s not easy Often situations go wrong And things aren t always pretty But just remember Hope closely follows despair Even when misery infects the town Joy will always prevail

10 P a g e No Es Un Campo By Adorelis Medina El campo m s pobre that s how they call my city For them it s not even a city but it s the countryside El campo m s pobre diversified by the people in it the languages spoken and the ideas shared El campo m s pobre for aliens this city s advancement is overdue And the history of those before us along with the old buildings they believe should be shattered Those looking from the outside in will never understand My city my community my people my home They ll never understand our struggles why so many are homeless and have become slaves to their addictions why so many youth are battling mental illness at such an early age they ll never understand El campo m s pobre isn t perfect but deserves the same respect as any other city like New York Seattle or even Philadelphia for the people in it have dark under eyes and never stop reaching for the stars This city is not defined by its beauty nature or buildings but by its people those who work with no stop El campo m s pobre ser para ti pero para m es la ciudad de la prosperidad City of prosperity is Reading to me for though it is not perfect its opportunities are endless and allow its people to strive to prosper and succeed

11 P a g e Penn Street Poetica by Jayne Relaford Brown Berks County Poet Laureate All enclosed within the gentle curving of the river as it flows from a Souvenir Booklet of Reading 1895 Where the avenue becomes a street The River Speaks if not in circles in swerves and curves music and dance circles of words When you cross the bridge first glance might seem like too many dollar stores not enough bucks But up the stairs and down the streets Reading s Poetry Struck High school poets sit on the steps of the citadel Look out over row homes and row themselves home Who am I Who could I be The poems they write make up their maps By the library steps fairy tales unfold today s Grimm stories re told stolen children hastened away here avenged and returned in a glorious dance Upstairs at Barrio Alegria popcorn and poems are popping like mad fingers snapping deft rhymes clacking words slapping up laughter shared tears and joy In the big windowed room at the GoggleWorks local Bards aim their lenses on the unremarked magnify miracles open the mic

12 P a g e Alone on stage the flame haired dancer moves to words and the silence between Her body contracts She raises one arm in a gentle curve all enclosed like the river s bend where the city flows

13 P a g e Monopoly By Emily Hayes Whittle I liked it well enough When I was a child in Maplewood Missouri in the hot summertime we would put the Monopoly board on someone s front porch the game would go on for days everyone would bring their set and we would put all the extra money in the bank if you went bankrupt you could always borrow more it never ran out We had numerous little green houses and red hotels None of us had ever seen a red hotel None of us has ever actually taken a walk on the boardwalk We had never been to Atlantic City nor any of the other places on the board None of us had ever seen the ocean We didn t mind the heat because mostly we stayed outside None of us had air conditioning in our houses since it didn t exist we never thought about it In those days we used to pronounce Reading Railroad like reading as in reading a book I didn t know that there was a town by that name I never even remotely considered that some day I would live there that the people there would pronounce Reading different from the way we did that the trains would no longer run and you would not be able to take a ride on the Reading Railroad that I

14 P a g e would complain about the heat there and the fact I could not afford central air conditioning that the day would come there when I would not be able to borrow any more money from the bank

15 P a g e Red Temple By Brady Kull Looking down Through glass to these dark city streets Same way as through ocean on blue coral reef No pavement markings Warm amber light Pounding of drums Red temple in sight Insight stands a tower Once stood for a reason Hot fires would burn in the driest of seasons Standing lonely he watches a rainforest becoming But no fires will burn to wet streets and their drumming

16 P a g e Home in the Flood Plain By Elizabeth Stanley Look out from the Pagoda see the greening of the city and river valley with no boundaries no visible boundaries between the neighborhoods at this distance no boundaries between the city and surrounding towns and suburbs Just the greening of trees grass meadows that flow toward the city where buildings hold the center We make our home in this flood plain River flows goes where it will gathering waters from highlands mountain springs Mt Penn the hills of Galen Hall where once the wealthy came from New York and Philadelphia to the hills near Wernersville for a cure they sought from living waters mineral springs clear air sweet green forests birds mountain laurel We make our home in the floodplain surrounded by highlands hills softly rounded by eons of weathering

17 P a g e a line of blue mountains on the horizon Sun glints off glass metal Cars careen along roads city streets where world rhythms beat

18 P a g e Walking to Work By Sandra Fees This is the side where I walk the side where I pass the barbershop shears shaping city secrets the side where caf lights edge plate glass in teal hot pink and scarlet whiffs of tostones feeding the air This the side where the textile building s windows arch their eyebrows and muffled ears enter the library s quiet symmetry Puffer hooded toddlers stomp their feet and whisker chinned men lean against grocery carts The shivered wait for canned beans and crunchy peanut butter A skateboarder scrapes by doubleparked cars I pause mid block to wiggle a deftly milled gold key into a lock and enter where I have come and gone before burdened and unburdening where stucco walls let just enough outside in the fleeting trail of sirens a couple speaking Spanish a truck idling and throaty laughter The sky half clouded half fire sputtering snow After work I jay walk to my solitary car five stories up above street level There the whole block visible And beyond sun cuffs the mountains Up there my heart imbibing something as ordinary as a sidewalk

19 P a g e 1415 Moss By Stormy Russell Home used to be open fields and bonfire smoke grass and cows neighbors who ask who I belong to Now it is something else entirely sounds of bachata the wafting scent of arroz con grandules a narrow rowhome tucked between bodegas and daycares Home is behind a stained glass window in a city where no one knows my name

20 P a g e North 8th By Stormy Russell Where only asphalt blanketed moments before Now there is a dead cat Yellow eyes frozen orbs Ruby glass pool of blood under Gray fur lifting gently in the fish scented breeze And no one looks down

21 P a g e A Woman from Reading By Morgan Thomas I have cultivated these curves Since they emerged They have belonged to me Since I was born I have loved this city Since it welcomed me in I have painted its walls And ushered peace in Don t call me by your names I won t hear you And these streets They won t protect you You know territory But I know home These buildings will crash into you Until you leave this city and this body alone

22 P a g e Let My Words Be Not In Vain By Adorelis Medina Let my words be not in vain Listen to the cry of my city A cry for those who it fights for For the children whose dreams have been destroyed for the innocence that was lost for those who fell to addictions and have forgotten who they are Let my words be not in vain Release those stereotypical thoughts Stop the prejudice actions diamonds are found in the rough This city is full of diamonds Let my words be not in vain Give my community a chance A chance to show you what we carry to show that our blood sweat and tears have not been in vain but rather how it has increased our strength Love us hate us feel as you may But we will rise you ll see My words will not be in vain

23 P a g e Reading Pennsylvania By Fadi Acra Oh city with a pagoda for a hat you wear your past glory well and cut a dashing figure at that with open arms you have embraced us all we came to you hauling our dreams and hopes large and small a slow decline had cut you deep and hit you hard left you bleeding bruised and scarred carpetbaggers have come and gone danced with you then sold you for a song you ve been in a long slumber waiting for a kiss from a passionate pauper or from a charming prince here it is a kiss a kiss a glorious kiss waking you up slowly you are dazed and lying flat what now now what before you open your eyes let your thoughts settle and imagine the limitless skies and dreams you ve dreamt fulfilled at last and gleaning seeds from the fruits of your past planting lush gardens painted green by the gods rise now don t only follow the clouds your brightest hope is the people born in your heart and the people you let in it now open your eyes

24 P a g e The Sunroom Wallace Stevens House 323 N Fifth St Reading PA By Heather H Thomas Her legs were shorter then It s a quick climb now to the second floor apartment Opening the door she falls into the Wedgewood jar of the living room a blue world whose patterned white figures freeze in their dance Two steps up her parents bedroom their turbulence knocks the wind out of her I turn and walk as if leaving a stage Wallace Stevens descended in purple air more truly and strange the walls sliced open by words so she covers her ears The air roars as a plane takes off rifling books on the shelves tearing up paper lives rewriting history as snow blowing in the same bare place between mind and sky between sound and night This is why the poet is in the sun

25 P a g e pointing her finger at the moon meeting her shadow in a book I m walking room to room with echo clamor in summer heat A line of fire around drawn shades smell of burning metal an overlooked pot but no one has cooked in this kitchen for years She crosses the floor stenciled with sun I sit on a folding chair and feel the unraveling in my veins It s always like this the child not knowing what to do how to live Light over Sixth Street rooftops leads her down the fire escape to the sandbox between brick walls until the radio draws her back up the iron stairway to the paints brush paper Mother gave her the glass of water the Chordettes singing She paints a big blue sun small ruby bird Under the covers her page glows with ghost letters She holds the brush covers my hand writing

26 P a g e wayward names that won t go away Her hand keeps moving far back all those rooms I came through She writes this

27 P a g e Windsor Street Washline By Mary Arguelles From my kitchen window three patches past the white lilacs I can see Nilsa hanging out her wash With her baby papoosed to her breast and a clothespin clenched in her teeth she dragoons April into domestic duty Bright white baby tees line up in obedience to Nilsa happily greeting the day One by one with regimented authority the towels flap in the breeze each flag asserting its colors An array of socks musical notes on a staff compose their requiem for laundry s lost art An older child zigzags in and out of billowing cotton sheets so many curtains rising on her Saturday matinee This length of rope tethered to the ages tells the tale of hands turning in useful work of mothers and children gathering sun and air and of the peace that comes from folding

28 P a g e The Soap and Whiskey Bridge By Patrick Klimcho It s amazing what can be learned By keeping your eyes open In the Keystone State Crossing Sixth Street in the city of Reading Pronounced Reading as in bedding Not reading as in seeding Just north of Buttonwood near Woodward Is a beautiful swirling Psychedelic wonder Frozen in brown stone Not dreamed by Doctor Leary in the swinging sixties But Richard Osborn back in eighteen fifty six A railroad skew bridge first imagined Then modeled in blocks of soap Built by men paid in whiskey at least partially Arch with no keystone for the twisting masonry Is laid elliptically meeting abutments built out of square To accommodate the angle of the street Who knew of such engineering Who wondered if the whiskey was at fault

29 P a g e in this present still being By Ruby Mora have you thought of the ground you walked on lately the feeling of dirt adjusting to the soles of your shoes the way the clouds decided to line up tremendously in sync with the sun chrysanthemums lilacs oranges have you settled your eyes on the trees as of late changing with us as the seasons evolve feel the crackles of bark forming intersecting roads only seen up close only felt when you take the time to give your fingertips the proper reintroduction encircle yourself in blooming in feeling in being in absolute in humanity something we are so fiercely and endlessly clutching onto

30 P a g e The Enchanted Forest By S Rose As I sit underneath a canopy of pine trees in the midst of a tiny tranquil forest I hear the distant roars of vehicles far enough away to feel present in another world The cool soft breeze brushes upon my face with the greetings of Old Man Winter s return Notes of citrus pine and humus fill the air Looks of curiosity from others that pass by as I sit on a bed of pine needles After a long detached hiatus Mother Earth calls me home With songs of rustling leaves being tossed by the soft and gentle breeze And the lively stream that dances past me as I walk I am home again and I one with Her She softly whispers Welcome my Child welcome Home

31 P a g e the other By Tony Veloz i plasma balls gently nestled above plasma lines energized lines of death metallic bearers of life our modern prometheus NOTICE DANGER may result in death ii upshoots from a concrete jungle jeunglinge iii stop

32 P a g e stalk of steel red octagonal cob iv children play run about swinging plastic torches green streaks by mounds of chlorophyll and starch East Side v patch path stretching patch of railroad into wilderness railroad clearing trees rise among metal and free flowing electrons a synthesized jungle

33 P a g e a synthesized wilderness vi oasis of beauty wild uncontrolled un subjugated a wooden civilization of unspoken harmony unrecognized harmony like the resolute dominant of the baroque vii apollo s chariot rests upon the breast of gaia colonized by the dreams and aspirations of prometheus children inspired in spirare xiii an oasis of borax and fillers joined with water holy surrounded by deserts of organic matter

34 P a g e capped by metal canopies ix as day yields to night apollo s chariot ceases to exist order collapses and disorder abounds the paradigm of light gives way to hades if only for a while but perhaps this time for the rest of eternity devoured by cerberus beware x the edge of a city timeless where the third landscape begins and escapes where the abandoned mutilated landscape originates dimensionless

35 P a g e Me Mirrors and Leaves By Xavier Care I see Mother Earth in the mirror as she cowers in fear because of all the forests we ve cleared Replaced by farms where people s minds good intentions are weird Controlled by grown men strength only found in their beard Like the fathers of America a dream revered No remorse for riding on trails tracks with machinery on high gear And now I can t promise that we ll be here in 12 years Counting the lines of a tree becomes a ceremony for a colony of bees that won t see another decade So they re unafraid to sting for what s man made because if we leave our debt unpaid We ll all lose the right to biodegrade Knocking on wood one less bird s nest walking past what could be our best Instead We ve discovered more ways of making our air water and soil a mess While the dominant hands

36 P a g e could care less Tree trunks grew straight until the sun was blocked by smoke stacks We can t follow the broken chain from coal fallen on train tracks to the crying faces that are just as black or their parents factory workers making sure your new cell phone is tightly packed Another reflection I saw my face in their leaves Sympathy falling for a piece of their tree But we are the trunk the peach the bees and that tea It s in your hand Mixed with water from the sea So on behalf of my mother s reflection I ask you to fight with me Her kindness has taught me to say please

37 P a g e The Park By Nelson De La Cruz I just wanted to go to the park I thought Climb the monkey bars for sport And run never walk By myself my mom said no I asked why cause I said so In a rush to grow All about the highs fuck the lows Never knew you never know The swing of things When the wind blows The sprinklers will have you soaked To the point that you can t float You climb up just to slide down Hoping your two feet hit the ground In standing position Your man ends up missing When there s problems around The mental seesaw never balances out What is this challenge about It takes two to level but how Some kids are just foul Maybe they been at the park too long Or were only taught to do wrong Maybe they weren t shown any compassion And that s how they moved on Some of them hang on their own And play with rocks in the dirt Some cry when they scrape their knees Others try to hide their hurt I ve done both Tried acrobatics did backflips with no gymnastics Some of my dudes left in caskets And others in paddy wagons I crossed over bridges that weren t sturdy And I always held on Felt wrong when I rocked it And someone else fell from My immaturity or my selfishness Or was it their purity and not expecting it Cause no matter the situation For the most part I kept my grip A few times I stepped in shit

38 P a g e Even when my path was figured out Playing manhunt trying to find myself Had a lot to think about Learned a lot from my surroundings The grass ain t as green as I thought it would be I felt caged in without a fence all around me Hide and go seek with my acquaintances Although we don t see the same in shit They tried to tag me they couldn t tag me Cause their lane I wasn t adjacent with But I still will participate And picnic on till precipitates Even then I carry on Mind states in a different place I love the park love the sunshine Even when rains combine Gotta appreciate the downpour Even when it abbreviates the fun times Another day another chance I come to play and understand Giving knowledge achieving wisdom While I juggled some other plans But in the midst of the fog I catch a glimpse when I was nine Reminiscing about asking my mom To just let me go outside

39 P a g e Profiteering By Tony Veloz Plastic Bottles Polyethylene High density HDPE Esterized terepthalene PETE But no vinyl chloride PVC Poisonous ethylene glycol Bottles of ethylene glycol Sweet and syrup like Sugary venom from plastic maple trees No child don t drink that glycol It s nether glucose fructose or sucrose A jungle of pipes Ivory white Sausage links of Carcinogenic vinyl chloride Knit into tubs of PVC Polymerized Plasticized Profitized The environment screams Radicals reign Particles rain As protons rampage Through that unnatural concept Of life No child no ethylene glycol for you That s your father s antifreeze Guardian from both cold and heat Europa s ice covered ocean And the sun s infernal distal sheet Plastic products big and small Polyethylene HDPE A pinch of terepthalene Find me PETE Some polyvinyl chloride Profiteering PVC

40 P a g e Philadelphia Poe and the Basement By Ashley R Jones Darkness come kiss me bitter Come down to my chamber woman Give me half truths of echo grey She will shiver like a forest thunder Earth so light I walk empty in love Which I am in laced whisper hidden in Death s shadow filled with haunting desire

41 P a g e While Sitting on the Stoop By Noah Ayala While sitting on this stoop I ve realized why most men dream I ve been here before but never it s occurred to me this thing What triggers you inside Why a robber schemes or why a woman with so much soul expresses herself and sings Why tragedy mostly pain it brings and why hip hop is always been a poor man s dream While sitting on this stoop I ve realized why most men dream There s more sky than earth It s much bigger than us Why we fighting for a man made object That highlights the words in god we trust when at the end of the day he made us all equal and to this very ground our bones shall crust really what s the difference between love and lust as I look around the room and discover the wolf in sheep s clothing who can I trust life s addictions when you fall which one shall we crutch while sitting on this stoop I ve realized why most men dream it s not a his or her thing it s more for all of us the beggars the followers the leaders and even those that chose to call on us the ones who want to change look up at the sky and shout lord please I ve had enough the gambler as sweat leaves his forehead wishing he was dealt a different hand we all want something what could this be for me while sitting on this stoop I discover why most men dream it was a hard upbringing watching them fall it was painful hearing their voices but ignoring the calls just wanting it to be all over and me part of that cause

42 P a g e lifestyles of the rich and famous turn their faces frauds meanwhile in my own world creating my tablets writing my quotes living out the true definition of persistence I ve always seen what they could never picture scripture after scripture could you picture a picture less picture frame with no boarder s plain walls it s been several years since a plane falls but its everyday my son calls papi can you pick me up I want to play the game pause as the preacher calls to my attention son are you lost watching the winter s take over cover the ground frost who am I I am just a poet a troubled Young Man that grew up and now knows this I am lip balm for your chapped lips I ve been mistaken profiled and wrongfully accused it s not just rap Picture yourself expressing a dream with the breath of your soul And the force of a team While you sit in your denim jeans I ve realized while sitting on this stoop why most my life I ve dreamed

43 P a g e Last Phone Booth in Reading By Brian James It is in need of a hero In tights and a cape A place for a symbolic change where an ordinary person steps up faces the problems of the city and says Challenge accepted

44 P a g e Sign By Adam Richter How many rains will it take Before that old billboard On the side of those row homes That advertises a store that once Stood downtown Before the malls Before urban renewal Before the bridge crowd decided It was too dangerous to cross Unlike the old days When you had factories In the neighborhoods When there were movie theaters Even that one a few blocks from The park the one that showed G rated movies When they existed But got so desperate to stay open It started showing porno films When they existed The old Polish woman sees that billboard And she remembers the store With its mannequins in the windows That jutted out onto the sidewalk Creating a kind of alcove of the entrance Mannequins that wore the kind of clothes Her mother would never let her buy

45 P a g e Or that she would never let her daughter buy That was when most people in the neighborhood Had names that resembled hers But now those neighbors have died Or moved away And the ones who live around her now Have names that are easier to spell They don t complain about the old days They bring life to her neighborhood Life to her city That so many For so long Wrote off As dead

46 P a g e Where I m From By Sandra Fees Where I m from they know how to stroke what is wild of beauty Theirs were the hands of boxers and pacifists quilters and farmers And now Now I am from somewhere else this other Pennsylvania town home to goggle factories and shuttered stations an intersection of valleys and a generation of dreamers and muralists who paint the future Now I am here Is this a place I come from Or a place passing through me

47 P a g e Looking Forward To Getting Back By Michael Macera My life right now feels like constant bursts of monthly happiness Followed by recessions with hope for recovery Hope from looking forward to getting back I told myself that these moments are supposed to mean something They re supposed to be turning points Like sharing drinks on the roof of your brownstone apartment Those are moments I ll never get again But suddenly they don t hold much weight I spent my time miserable for nostalgia Then I m nostalgic for the times when I thought I was miserable Maybe I was happy the whole time and I m just not realizing it The pursuit of looking forward to getting back continues Some visual imagery that conjures up the above mentioned feelings 24 hour diners The Delaware Beaches Antonio s Pizza of Williamstown NJ The PJs in Sinking Spring The mall with the pyramid in Reading You look back and your train is coming

48 P a g e A Girl Reading By Heather H Thomas Mother studies trend in hats Remember she says to have style The straw brim tilts on my crown The grandmothers gather into girdles into kid gloves white and black When they argue I turn translucent as a photo negative and open a book Our sacrifice for beauty they say if only she would cut her hair I memorize everything until I learn to think for myself At the library old men in coats stagger in sit at oak tables with the Reading Eagle Help wanted hosiery mill knitters Up in the stacks Emma Bovary rots with desire Lily Bart loses The House of Mirth and Edna Pontellier shadowed

49 P a g e by the lovers and the lady in black abides the pain of wakefulness Snug in coats the old men nod heads to their chests My body grows heavy bones of my feet chalk blue in the shoe store X ray Mother says big feet give a firm foundation At Whitner s department store I stroll through Foundations mounds of bras and girdles a fresh white smell A woman in a lab coat dusts jars of tinted powders in Cosmetics Smoke pours from the stacks at Vanity Fair At Stanley s Bar on Cotton Street a man can buy a wafer thin box of ladies nylons a Polish ham a Sunshine Beer I ride the bus to Fifth and Penn

50 P a g e and tie fantastic bows at Feel Fine Miss Schultz and Miss LaMonica wear black and stand matriarchs before the racks necks draped with the dreaded tape measure My grandmothers depart on the Queen Mary lean on the deck that carries them away No book ever ruined a girl s life they sing waving handkerchiefs You ll never know they sing as though they knew as though Edna came back from her final swim as though my life was not a secret ruin of books secret joy

51 P a g e I m From A Place Where By David Nazario I m from a place where we say thank you to the driver before we get off the bus I m from a place where if you re not from here you can t talk about Reading but I can talk about us I m from a place where politics can be corrupt Where if you re a Rose that don t grow in concrete you can t lead us Shoutout to Eddie This is the place where an ice grill will get you fucked up But what luck Same place where a viejo will get behind your truck No gas He ll bust his ass to help you get unstuck We move snow for each other We hold doors for the mothers For the sisters For the brothers Where holiday plates are filled high with mac and cheese and rice and beans Where corner boys feed the fiends Where bodegas replace Whole Foods and some fools from over the bridge think we don t know how to live but drive past our cribs en route to the hockey game What a shame They don t wanna be around But I m still from a place where Leira will turn your frown upside down At Mi Casa Not my house but Johanny s I know you feel this now Shoutout to Felix I m from a place where the Barrio is the neighborhood but also the savior in the hood led by a king named Daniel We are poor but we are the channel to the riches Where men call their women bitches and Queens Know what I mean This is the place where The Wonder Of Ivy is behind me but still leading the pack Same place where Dear Reading is showing you what it means to be young gifted and Black Where Reading Pride is not quite that But I ll be there at the parade with the gays and I m proud of that Cause I m from a place where Carlos is Lola Cha Cha every Monday At the bar they go hard dressed in drag all night I m from a place where Oakbrook taught me how to fight I was a Wildcat then a Knight

52 P a g e Cause I m from Reading Yeah That s right Where I m from

53 P a g e LOVE

54 P a g e Self Love By Tasha Santiago Our City is a house We get many visitors sadness anger happiness Love lives here with us and together we entertain our guests But we also enforce boundaries You may not overstay your welcome Sometimes we forget to keep up with our house We might not dust the shelves of our hearts Or forget to wash clean the hands of regret We may even forget to open the shades when darkness fills the mind Stunting the seeds of growth we worked hard to plant Sometimes we let the trash accumulate It isn t until the vile festering rotting smell fills the house we even realize it s there Waiting too long we punish ourselves as we try to artificially cover up the stench We end up living with it longer than we would have had we thrown out those rotten thoughts expired feelings or putrid ideas other people left our trash sooner But how does one apologize to a house We try to do better wash the walls with a healthy sheen fill it with things to help it glow Make sure we cultivate a deserving community for our house Find a spot for it to be safe How else can you thank a home We were gifted with these extraordinary houses The least we can do is a little upkeep

55 P a g e Time Is Everything By Kareem Cade I have a question for you They say time is everything So when you say you want everything does that mean you only want time When you say you want everything from me Does that mean you only want my time If so that s fine I ll bless you with that and everything that s mine I m at a point with you where I don t have to question your loyalty Because you give me everything I need you spoil me With that love I could die for I feel like dying less and living more Spending endless days with you under sunsets and sandy shores The sunsets are under the moon now the shores are sandy between our feet The crash of the waves and the smell of saltwater moments I ll look back on When you re not with me and I start missing you And I think of ways I could surprise you when you would get home Rose petals all throughout the house to grace you after you ve been gone Candles and love music just to set the mood A glass of wine and a plate of food Happiness imbued between the two Your lovely smile shows to acknowledge you love how I treat you Everything I do I go a little further just to meet you I get so excited at the thought of you throughout the day When I sit back and smoke I see clouds of your pretty face Swooshin and swishing I don t feel empty nothing is missing I m just drifting in the waves with you In the waves in my mind where your perfection lies A place where love is felt and kindness shines A place I seem to go to all the time When I need you close when I crave you to be near When I need to see the perfection that helps me see clear When I crave that love that leaves me helpless When I need time with you and no one else The fondness of your aroma with gentle serenades

56 P a g e Lying in the bed I never made Lying next to you with sleepy eyes Watching you evaporate into the open sky I m extending my time with you with gentle breaths Breathing you out just to breathe you back in Breaking rules ignoring laws Just to be around when you call I make sure I m available They say time is everything I want time because then I ll have you and that s everything

57 P a g e Nitakupenda Milele By Adorelis Medina For the times our hands intertwined For the time you said no one has made me feel this way For the times we stayed up late deep into conversations For the times our lips touched For the time you made me smile when all I wanted to do was cry For the times your arms held me embraced For the times we only spoke with our eyes for what we felt was too deep to be said For all the moments you made my heart flutter For that nitakupenda milele And though Our hands may never touch again My smile may never again be sprung from your words Our hearts never share another embrace My phone will never receive a call from you Your eyes never stare into mines with such passion Nitakupenda milele Nitakupenda milele for all you taught me for all you gave me for the time we shared and for the hope of there being a time when our hearts will embrace again Nitakupenda Milele means I ll love you forever in Swahili

58 P a g e Love in Portuguese By Morgan Thomas A gente achou um lugar We found a place Maravilhoso Marvelous Dedicado para n s Dedicated to us Entre as ondas Between the waves Em cima da realidade On top of reality Fique n s There s us O mar amigo seu The ocean is a friend of yours Voc sabe como ele respire You know how he breathes Como inquietas How he fidgets Voc sabe como pedir You know how to ask Para ele escondar For him to hide A gente do mundo Us from the world

59 P a g e It s You By Odalys Barajas You don t know how you make me feel a single butterfly flying around in a field You make me feel indescribably beautiful like a rose with its thorns it can be trouble but can pull you in a trance by its attractive soul It s you Though sometimes I feel like I ll fall apart I know you ll always be there to pick me up and fix it all I get flustered thinking about you I start to blush and think how can all of this be true How can you fall in love with me and my flaws with someone so imperfect like me Sounds like a dream that was meant to be It s you Turns out you love everything about me which drives me with glee I hope this is true because what I feel for you is something unreal I hope we last and I hope we re happy because with you I have everything I ve always wanted I promise to be brave and I promise to stay because what we have is a connection that I ll take to the grave It s you

60 P a g e She By DayQuan Williams She makes me better everyday She created perfectly in every way Queens never kneel to kings They re always right beside them Without she I am nothing You see I m just the trident to this Poseidon Because she s the master of the waves that I keep riding She the pen when I m writing She the ink when I m signing I think that I m lying When I tell myself you do not need her Because when a woman s plate is already full she s not concerned about what a man can feed her She a unicorn a magical creature She the superstar Me just the feature I usher her to the stage For her I am a groupie She got me shadow boxing a Greek baby god because I didn t ask Cupid to shoot me I want to write her poems every day but what I say isn t worthy enough to be placed on her loose leaf She playfully says I m not ready for her type of high And my reply I want all the smoke cause the rest of my ex s were handing me looseys She s so Austin powerful her vibrations are groovy Vibrating on higher level Her pitch is perfect and I m not talking about the movie She s so much more than a snack A full course meal that could satisfy Scooby The men who have attempted to disperse this energy now shed tears like they ve seen a sad movie When I see she all she sees is cheese Like Ratatouille More precious than diamonds pearls or a bag of Ruby s And even if it doesn t work out I m just glad she knew me

61 P a g e I Love You By Kareem Cade I would love you forever Even if forever is just a moment Because when I look at you My beautiful queen Time stops and nothing else matters Just know that I adore you When I write from my heart just know it s all for you I feel like I m man enough for us to not fall apart Man enough to love you from end to start I wish to speak words that resemble your beauty Speak your love from your heart directly into me Give me your love I want it all and nothing else Every morning I wish to look at your picture on my shelf Right next to my alarm and my watch and my keys So when I look at the time I ll know I have you from now until infinity I wish to know who you were Before you became the person you are now Baby memories things as a child when you were young Did you do anything wild what did you do that you wouldn t do I wish to dig deep and know every part of you I don t want surprises I want to know where your lies live So I can knock on the door and tell em where I live I expect so much from a wife Hold my hand share my life Be my angel give me light Be my soulmate day and night When I m wrong be my right Be my strength when I can no longer fight And I ll love and protect you my entire life Sweet words I wish to speak to you To compliment your aroma Back rubs and good conversation whenever you come over Appreciative of the very woman you are Realizing the love you emanate will take us so far You always hear me call you beautiful the usual Simple words that you need to know Because how I make you feel is so important You have to take care of your heart or your life will be shortened I would never be a king without you my queen

62 P a g e Intertwining yourself with me changed my destiny You ll forever get the best of me Because you re left with me And even when you leave you ll be left with me

63 P a g e Your Love is Like Jazz By Morgan Thomas Your love is like jazz It tumbles and cascades Leaving a trail of goosebumps Where you touch me Your affection is a series Of haphazardly beautiful notes But your ego Lives in sour chords Hidden under the muse Of jazz owning no mistake In the trances of your melodies You caress me And show me A note ever so flat It extinguishes my passion Another slightly sharp Stings as you shrug off The music I made myself But it is all packaged In the sultry silk Of your song Produced So you may do no wrong Your love is like jazz

64 P a g e Lust of the Heavens By Ivan Misiura Illuminated longing by Lunar light Tis night alone That gives way to desire I hold the essence of your being I become lost in the soul of thine eyes The wind howls Autumn s faint whispers Raise one s hairs to attention Love s warmth overcomes Upon this nature s edifice Doth time remain still One night One lifetime The silhouettes of the dead Bend to the whispers of autumn Giving way to surreal landscape Above is monstrous beauty Revealed to all Revered by few Reviled by none The sense of your touch Lends to synaptic surge Affirming the undefined Love belongs to the bygone Spirit of elusive place Just now discovered under Lunar s vested light

65 P a g e Trapped inside By Odalys Barajas Sometimes I wanna leave this place the place in my mind that doesn t give me any space I can t help but think why my heart and self conscious are against each other why they disagree so much about one another why one wants lust and one wants trust why one wants to be with him but the other away from him I can t figure out what s right for me and what s true for me if this was meant to be then why is my heart and self conscious arguing about me and my needs why does one tell me to stay and the other to leave one tells me I m right and one tells me I m wrong so please tell me is this what you want for me to question myself about what is true and what is fake about the love I have for you was that a mistake I don t know and I don t think I ever will but what I do know is the love that I have for you is real so one day when my heart and self conscious come together to make a decision I know I ll choose right

66 P a g e because by then I ll know right from wrong and I ll know if this was what I wanted from the start of it all

67 P a g e Red By Julie Stopper Sofia Mish When you say trust in the love that s stored up for you I remember Rilke I remember the concept of the cloud I remember you saying there is always more to come When I lifted off in a hot air balloon I noticed there were poppies everywhere A field of them growing like grass on a green lawn but they were red Red like the hot sauce I put in your ramen when you were sick red like the laces on your Doc Marten boots red like rain because rain is a prism containing all colors all at once red Ahead of me lies a life of intentional misremembering a life of daydreams of less than dreary days diffusing my memories demanding my attention transforming my trauma into triumph into tilted realities becoming real to me a fable fabricated in my mind but is it a lie or is it alive

68 P a g e when your memories become what you need them to be when your body becomes your basis for knowing who you are when you imagine yourself as you want to be and live into that reality quietly gradually without even knowing all of a sudden you pass yourself surpass yourself what you saw when you were in a hot air balloon flying over a field of bright red poppies

69 P a g e Erin By Lyn Lessig Let me borrow your voice I won t speak ill Let me keep quiet and fill us both with poetry The words you spoke Slip and streaming Through cracks I didn t know I had in me Let me borrow your smile I won t cry gravity Let me twist bravely in flight or trust that I will fall slowly Let me borrow your shakes and spins Your low walks and high dives Let me keep you alive on paper between blue lines Let me borrow your name And when I sing I will bring three of you to the wind with me Let me borrow your heart And live lonely Let me borrow your mind and live caged live caged beautifully Let me borrow your time I ll put you back piece by piece Jigsawing slowly only our edges complete Let me borrow your brevity Return this grief Sinking politely into soil and history Let me borrow your feet And please please follow me Through lakes and streams and dreams and tapestries All the places we could have been All the places we should have been would have been But you won t be and it hurts Did it hurt Doesn t everybody die someday Let me borrow your past Let me know it completely Every thought every feeling Carve your memory inside of me Scribe your geometry

70 P a g e On the backs of my hands So I can understand Understand what happened what s happening to me Let me borrow your grace If you ever had any Lace it between my toes and keep me walking tall Let me borrow your truth I m not going to bury this It s not going to bury me but if you d been buried Would I still see you everywhere I go Let me borrow your coat I ve gotten so cold Here am I a giant Here I am a tower of need Here we are under current Here we are breathing deep Building twin spiral galaxies in the absence of peace It s all dead it s all dead and it s endless endlessly brief So we stay out late When we should go home We re drunk but we are happy at least in the moment We ll stay up all night Tell all the worst jokes And find ways to patch up patch up the worst of our holes Shout out the sad stuff Shoot down the untold Shout out the bad stuff You re not alone You re not alone You re never alone And I ve got the evidence I ve got your books and your paladin A solar eclipse and a cup of tea waiting A songbook with notes That you ll never play with me I ve got your coat I ve got your memory I m not letting go And I ll wear us out Til we re just thread and bones If I still feel alone Just until morning Would you let me borrow your ghost

71 P a g e Vivien By Lyn Lessig I left you like an open window Hoping the wind would change It was a little naive But when I start to freeze I can build fires From the flowers you grew in your mouth for me I burned away all the gifts you gave To me When the ashes touch my cheek I call your name Pull away Pull away I drown the damage done Flood sorrow in her grave And I watched her float away But at the turning tide She pressed her hand in mine Pull away Pull away Caught like a loose thread on a rough break You re okay Til you see the size of the hole Too late And your heart is exposed Everyone can see the lies that live under your clothes The lines of your ribs And your blue cold bones Pull away Pull away I left my palace To build bridges in the rain And I watched them float away I ll salvage what I can With splinters in my hands Pull away Pull away

72 P a g e I burned away all the gifts you gave To me But the embers at my feet keep crawling strange They come in through my window Put color in my dreams I know I m changed I know I m changed

73 P a g e Uncovered By Valois Joubert I ve been trapped in my thoughts I feel so lost Don t know what to do Just want to get over you It s been so hard I feel like I m scared Just want to get this over with So that way I can cover it Cover it So that way I don t hurt no more Hurt no more to the point that I am not too sure Too sure about life and what it has to offer for me So that way I can continue to just follow my dreams Liking this boy just hurt me so many times I can tell you about it but I just don t have time I m trying to focus on what I want to do with me I m trying to see the bigger picture I m trying to be FREE

74 P a g e CHASM By Elizabeth Stanley She said can I have a minute He stopped She stepped closer She said I m hurting and I want time to talk with you about the silence between us She started to tear up His expression hardened then softened still silent She said I want to talk with you when we can be alone just you and me He was silent just listening He was watching her waiting She asked him to let her know when they could meet to talk just the two of them He whispered I don t understand His eyes showed the pain confusion anger he was holding She knew he heard her this time She saw he was chewing on what she said He knew something huge had happened between them She felt an opening maybe the beginning of a bridge He stood motionless as she turned and walked away She didn t look back

75 P a g e A Peak at Love By Xavier Care I suppose that when we re nose to nose I should have my eyes closed But now you re gone I hope not for long Textures of clothes tight grips so strong Maybe I m wrong but this feels straight out of a pop song As I peak your focus tells me I m not strong Your lips push pull The taste I ll never be full My eyes open Your smile is the drug and I m tokin Your love is so potent Nearly out of breath but kept my eye open A few seconds of light Then I dropped from this height You can t see I m alone in the dark and now I m choking Because it s time for you to disappear again but I m coping

76 P a g e Let It Be By Roman Ciervo Living in a city filled with crime and noise Peace fills me when I listen to Let It Be Positive messages whisper in my ear Mother Mary comes to me Speaking words of wisdom let it be Living in a troubled world It would be so nice if people would Listen to the calming lyrics Stopping all the hate and violence And just simply let it be I vow to do my part to spread love peace and harmony I m grateful to The Beatles For penning a song that speaks to me

77 P a g e Love yourself By Odalys Barajas I want to start off by saying you re perfect the way you are People won t understand what you went through but I can relate because I see the real you you re not just an object or something to play with you re a person filled with love which is something amazing although people underestimate you for what you say or what you do but you can t let it get to you because they don t know the real you they don t know every smile tells a story which is something they ll have to find out on their own separate journey They ll laugh and they ll point and they ll call you names but one thing is for sure they ll be the ones to blame It s understandable that you re upset with the words they say but babygirl keep your head up high because they are the ones that hate One day they ll see they ll see why you re always so forgiving because the heart that you have is something worth a million

78 P a g e STORIES

79 P a g e Shiver By Julie Stopper Sofia Mish I contain multitudes you know and when you were between my thighs I felt layered lips on lips kinda layered ya dig Layered like lipstick on a door frame layered like linens on my warm bed weighted blanket and you taking away the stress with every lick kinda layered I wasn t expecting this This conception of a connection where my bones feel as though they re in your body my mind s marrow traversing the space between us two bodies in a bed I see your self love as a stone in my hand wanting to see you sink into my waters to toss you across my surface seeing how many times I can make your heart skip We laid in my bed and you were quiet while I took my meds I ve never felt so comfortable while I medicate myself And you asked do you swallow all at once I told my therapist I needed someone to help cleanse me of the past and she said to just go stand in the ocean I was happy when you hit me with your waves showered me in kiss marks covered me from head to throw me back out to sea

80 P a g e I didn t want to objectify you although the objects surrounding us were all placed with purpose sitting sideways next to you in my bed I showed you pictures of the people I love My people Searching for my person is exhausting is an extravagant lottery a running roulette just to find out I ve lost yet again Butterflies in my belly running rampant running miles to see your face and I am faced with the realization that the daisy over my ribcage blooms for you When I say my daisy blooms for you I mean you re cute I mean I d like to see you under moonlight I d like to see you when the sun comes up in my mind I like flirting with you flames flicker fondly as I dream dreams of seeing you sit next to me in a photobooth capturing the consistencies of my time with you cradling the time like the hands of a clock and the hands of you I d like to hold in a store surrounded by handmade books Do you have the password Yeah sure uh it s black star Allo Hey love it s me I was just calling to check in I cherish every cigarette we smoke on the porch It s in times like these when I realize that someone is looking out for both of us The bodega caddy corner to 17 Walnut

81 P a g e Street became that corner that Summer Do you remember when I moved into the tiniest room simply because it had the best light during the daytime Protection is a must you said And I agreed wholeheartedly And I am happy about how upfront open and honest you are These qualities are my kinks I say if the stars align again it will be a miracle Fleeting loveliness and an attempt to keep it going keep it gaining speed as your comet plummets toward my earth I am extinct to you But I can see you in my sky feel you orbit as my moons raise my waters I am high and this is fated No I laugh we both know I m just high and this is faded No matter The matter that makes us moves with meaning and I am trapped in the thought that there was meaning behind our meeting When I say you are a seashell I mean you are one of many that make the beaches bright Though you were the one I picked up and put in my pocket knowing that one day I would eventually misplace you but basking in your beauty as you sit next to my potted plants in my bedroom on my bookcase

82 P a g e When I say don t mind me as I write poems about you I mean I m like Sam Smith when they say they re no good at a one night stand I mean I m like Rihana when she says baby you got me like Oh Oh one night was clearly not enough when your comet hit me I found myself shattered and now I m enjoying putting my pieces into poems When I say don t mind me I mean I found a hole in the wall to smoke a cigarette for a second letting the city wash over me rain falls as I find a place in the alleyway that s covered while I inhale and hope that my people don t mind that I left When I say that I left I mean I ll never really I mean my blood is rooted in the river that runs under the bridge that s no longer under construction I am under construction and I hope they ll still love me for it The construct of commonplace things meaning less to me than the miraculous is simply untrue the everyday is extraordinary A bus passes the brick building that brick building brings me home You said I smelled familiar I said yeah like flowers and smoke Looking out the window on an airplane at night and you see the earth below has disappeared blended in with the sky above It seems as though you are floating through nothingness The streetlights become stars losing track of which is which Out your passenger seat window my surroundings become more than what they are because I am happy Your hand on my knee and we are comfortable in the silence My mother always said this is a sign of something healthy I love waking up to you

83 P a g e I say with pepper spray in my mouth To attempt to be rid of a scar left by a mentally inflicted trauma is the same kind of impossibility of physically loving an inanimate object until it emotionally loves you in return I broke out the chucks because it s finally Spring You went ahead and grabbed us a booth left me there smoking a cig in the sunshine As I dropped the butt in the tower I heard a knock on the window It wasn t our favorite table but it was just fine for the time being It s October the first October in two years I have not spent laid up in a hospital bed Two years prior I was found at a bus station with a mutated mind Hearing voices and seeing signs I walked in front of an oncoming bus not with suicidal motives but because I was under the impression that it was the path I was meant to follow It is now October Last October I was fresh out of the psych ward with an abrasion on my neck It was yet another attempt on my life by my mutated mind But this time it wasn t the natural chemical imbalance in my brain that put the rope around my neck it was the little white pill in my palm whispering in my ear Encouraging for months to end it all Geodon silenced my mind and my doctors did not notice or otherwise did not care This was a medication used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder A side effect of Geodon is suicidal ideation I almost lost my life because of this drug Moving on to new doctors my first psychiatrist in Chicago clarified I am deathly allergic to Geodon

84 P a g e I feel relieved that he heard me when I said no He said Lucy you know yourself better than any doctor could After being hospitalized for a second time I was put on a cocktail of medications Abilify Lamictal Trazodone and Klonopin With these meds we were getting close to finding my sanity I was afraid to alter my medications but my new psych made me feel as though it would be okay So he changed and upped my anxiety med and changed my sleeping med Lunesta he said you may have seen the commercial for it on TV There is a butterfly that flutters across the screen There are butterfly wings on the Frida Kahlo mural under the 18th street stop and I feel as though everything will be okay Now I m on four medications two the same two different Abilify Lamictal Lunesta Vistaril Twice Two times too much I think but it s surely not the end of this journey toward the center of this earth toward picking flowers in the springtime I slaughter myself every winter every early autumn I am at the depths of me deep down below my ground the sound of my heartbeat can barely be heard but it s there I trust in this fact In an effort to reclaim my body this year I started getting tattoos It s been a way for me to take control of my mind through taking control of my body Art is a guaranty of sanity in the handwriting of the spider Thigh piece The Dancer a portrait of Sofia climbing up the calf Well she s a ballet dancer because she s both graceful and strong And to be both graceful and strong is what I must strive for every day as a person who suffers from a major mental illness She s a ballet dancer because

85 P a g e I m a survivor I tear my filters in half now Sometimes the whole thing is just too much smoke in my lungs I find myself burning pictures of ballerinas and I wonder why it feels so good to disrupt something so lovely Kissing the edges of the paper somehow repairs it somehow makes me feel as though everything can heal Although there s no getting rid of a burn and while one kiss mark is sweet a thousand is scary Daisy or anxiety transformed for you in the center of my stomach Little lady flowerpot stuck and poked A screaming song is good to know in case you need to scream a reminder to say something when something is wrong Ask for help when you need it You were looking at me through the glass I could see you as well as my own reflection I could see you because you let me I let you because you know what it s like when your body tries to devour itself you know all too well experimental doses they force down our throats I want to say no to this medication but I know it s my lifeline When I told you I have bipolar you said me too I said oh what type Your said bipolar one and I found myself instantly at ease for the fact that you even had an answer to this question that you said the same diagnosis as me How extraordinary How beautiful it is to look into your octagon eyes and see my own reflection When you asked me about safety I said I never feel it Not as long as I m in this body I cannot trust myself because of this illness I can only be self reflective and assess every situation as it comes Safety is only an illusion I say We performed without reading from a score that night We sang songs of suicide attempts Things we shared in common And in that moment I felt protected

86 P a g e You asked me if you were too much and I said no I like it when it hurts a little I like it when my heart breaks as egg shells under my feet as a harp that has been plucked too hard my vocal chords shake when I ask if you want to kiss me I would like that you say and I realize the only shells beneath me are solid are sitting next to sand and I am on your beaches holding you to my ear holding you to my heart as I hear your infinite echoes When I say I slaughter myself I mean I can conceive of kissing your words as they fall from your lips like lace on an open window like lunar eclipses completing my love living for When I say my pieces become poems I mean thank you I feel fortunate for forever finding myself in situations where I feel myself falling When I say I m falling relax I don t mean for you I mean for this life This undeniably good night capped at one a jar with a lid screwed on tight unable to open yet containing some of your sand and a single seashell My favorite place in the house wasn t actually in the house It was that porch I loved the way the rain would hit the roof and ricochet back into the air with the most haunting of sounds Doesn t it feel as though we re on a boat

87 P a g e Imagine this porch to be a boat and the cars driving by are other boats And the street is the river

88 P a g e Me or You In The Mirror By Hector De Jesus Malave Sometimes I ask myself Who am I Am I a copy Who am I Am I your reflection in the mirror Because I don t see you in the mirror One day you told me to cut my hair What s wrong with having it long Oh Because you say I don t look good Who am I Am I your reflection or mine Because I don t see you in the mirror I did everything you told me Now I know I m dumb for following your advice But wise for knowing you re wrong You know what I m tired of you I will be me no matter what I am me I m not your reflection Because I don t see you in the mirror I see myself I love black I paint my nails black I wear black Did I kill somebody over my fashion statement I don t think so I know who I am I m not going to change unless I want to Not because of you

89 P a g e I will be me no matter what I am me I m not your reflection Because I don t see you in the mirror I see myself

90 P a g e the biological basis of sex by Robin Gow my telephone wire bra straps made me listen to phone calls the neighbors want to order pizza from a planet nearby my mother is dialing no one is picking up i have an eavesdropping rib i cannot help it what i mean is i m female in the way that everyone with any curiosity is female in the wires everyone s voices turn to mice there might be mice in the walls or it is only my imagination or it is another monster the walls are full of other kinds of wires blue wires red wires black wires electric roller skating through them i want to be atomic in my next life i want to over hear something fantastic like a conversation between god his favorite angel he runs his fingers through the angel s hair his locks make the sounds of golden bells if i ever get around to shaving off my hair i will make the most wonderful instrument of it if i took my brother s violin bow drew it across my bra straps would i sing like i used to the tongue is a useful organ the teeth are best salvaged for future piano keys another phone call plays in my chest strangers who want to meet for the first time i want to interject tell them to meet in a bright parking lot somewhere unromantic to see if the spark lasts i ve fallen in love with light bulb filaments put my mouth to the edge of outlets there are animals just beyond grasp i don t make many phone calls anymore when i do they re to the eggshells i came from

91 P a g e i make a grateful voice hum my life story into the receiver the telephone wires do nothing you know no one tethers their language anymore we re talking our pathways through galaxies we re raking our teeth across the surface or the moon the wires are full of dust my bra clasps are made of rats teeth i m organic the last time i checked but i have been ignoring the signs that say otherwise

92 P a g e Ineffable By Ivan Misiura This is who I truly am unfettered by spoken word Expression is a death sentence I am the absurd Even this is but a dull shadow lit by erroneous flames This is my life to never be seen known or heard I am a part of you never to be gone I am that cursed stain This is who I truly am to vast a modicum to escape I am here I am you this be both our eternal fate Our identity viewed only by skewed parallax A voice of unrecognizable sincerity this all must excoriate All failure is brushed off rendered as meager Paraprax This is who I truly am to myself and the world unknown Gifted with all of language but the best one can do is a faint moan So damned are we trapped in a room full of mirrors with nothing to see We stare in our insanity the abyss in its gray scale veracity matches our tone This is who I truly am abyss that I cannot emancipate is me

93 P a g e Asylum Thwarted By Sandra Fees What would Anna Akhmatova say she who could describe the frightening years waiting in prison queues in rain gray Leningrad two years before my birth in a country I may never see What would rise in her mouth like trees grown whole overnight planted first in her songbird breast branches outstretching the vastness of grief to name what must be named in any age in any nation How can I invoke her words to rise again in my mouth in the shape of trees to describe the years when something called asylum failed to take root in the pursed lips of my country majesty of the beautiful in the isolating years as I wait outside detention center doors in rain gray Pennsylvania to visit Salvadoran mothers and children who appeal for a postlude to this their song of requiem

94 P a g e Letter To My Father By Aviyon Workman there s some days I didn t sleep also days I didn t eat so much stuff on my mind tried to get back up on my feet you did me really grimey and dragged me to my lowest when I get deep in my feels I try my hardest not to show it sometimes I really hate you and sometimes I really love you I m wishing you were here all I wanted was to hug you but you tore my family apart you really made my momma cry how did it feel to hurt your son you seen the hurt up in my eyes how d that make you feel to see your little one cry I will never forgive you cause all you do is lie

95 P a g e Mam By Jules Grace Mientras quiero achuchar el ni o dentro de l est achuchando mi cuello con manos enfadados Angry at the way people raised him angry at the tough love he confused for love because they loved him mientras ellos le estaban amando mientras su pap peg a su familia mientras la abuela was being held so lovingly around her neck in the kitchen she served in day in and day out Some people show that they love you in different ways they may cook for you clean for you lay down their lives for you A woman doesn t lay her blood down on the battlefield she lays down her life by pouring every drop of her bloody time every bleeding second to make sure t estas bien Call your mom Llama tu mam If you didn t hear me or understand the vibrations of my tone I said call your Mam It may be hard she may never have learned what love really could be But she s trying and so can you

96 P a g e A Girl Named Nina First Verse By Norma Tamayo I am a girl named Nina A Puerto Rican born in New York City I loved to dance like a ballerina People would say that I was so pretty But behind the smile was a panic stricken Latina My safe haven the fire escape There tears flowing my mind went free Trying to forget the unspeakable rape Thinking about that stranger who managed to flee A bad version of a man with a cape Sometimes those giggles can hide the pain But my dream to become a doctor was real Helping people will erase the stain Then no one would know what I concealed I am a girl named Nina

97 P a g e Squirrel By S Rose I can t move I m always on the go I can t start I can t stop Always late Always last in line People judge People don t understand Yes I don t finish a task right away Yes I may not seem interested in our conversation but I am focused This is me genuine me People judge People should understand I am my own unique person with unique gifts I m intuitive I think abstractly I have many talents People judge and misunderstand But this is me in all my form This is me genuine me

98 P a g e Suit of Survival By Maricelys Ruiz Your first impression of me is oh she s pretty but she s obese Nah fuck that with your narrow ass mind you can t even word it that nicely Your first TRUE impression is ewww she s fat But even though I shouldn t Imma share with you some facts My weight is my superpower My fat is my shield Each pound on that scale has a name has a meaning And while you call it a pound I call it a suit At 120 was beautiful at 150 I was pretty at 180 I was thick At 283 I see a survivor who pulled on her fat suit to fight off the monsters that chased so closely behind her since she was six My temple invaded my valleys explored My city ran through by an arch nemesis I then couldn t beat remember I was only SIX And rather than speak I hid behind this ever expandable invisible skin

99 P a g e Screw Up By Joshua Surita To you she was just a screw up And from you all she heard was you blew it And you could hit the shuffle button for your playlist of slander Yet before you pressed yep she already knew it See from her view It Was a stronghold that sought control Of each heart Which left her all in no way she could fold The chips stacked Ye high So it s either hitting the rocky road or learning how to fly And your callous hands and heart wouldn t allow you to catch even if she took a leap of faith It must be really hard to sympathize with weakness when you bench press pride And your life feels great Never dealt with this kinda weight But you sure love to throw around your weight Plump with conceit You can t handle being sat down at table just to wait You prefer the buffet Help yourself to enough self righteousness You re gonna need 3 4 or maybe 5 plates And hey she was just a beggar But you were too gluttonous see Since you made sure she was mentally situated right down at your feet She Needed love and compassion like any other Not to be the inconvenient line that festers with a broom tray Grab a rug and swept right under She Needed the shoulder of soul to cry upon When the cascade of insufficiency broke the dam of denial Only to be met with another one Again and again she Needed your forgiveness even when she didn t ask Because when you ve been forgiven much The right to hold a grudge makes your shrink and laugh Because all should be cast Breath taken with no last Sinned against a majesty Who won t just pass over your past Unless his Passover is over your past It s this humble example he needed But she s already passed

100 P a g e Things have changed By Annalis Ortega Things have changed Ever since sixth grade you learn and move on or Sometimes just stay the same I ve experienced Many me s and even now I still don t know who I ll Be all I m saying is just Take a minute to breathe OMG

101 P a g e Untitled By Maricelys Ruiz How do I explain what I myself don t understand That every day that passes my life hangs by a strand That I often contemplate my life coming to an end And that it s just a matter of if I dare and when I wonder if anyone would notice if I were gone Or if in hindsight they ll realize that for a long time I had already been gone Did they really never notice when I got quieter Couldn t they see that was the moment the demons in my head got louder I thought I was screaming but I guess my screams were silent Did I convey myself the perfect picture a little too perfect That I even convinced myself that I wasn t an utter reject I often wonder where I failed in life At what moment in what instance was made to believe I did nothing right I wonder when did I shed myself and become nothing but this empty shell I wonder if at my funeral they ll talk about the life I lived or gossip about the scars I ll leave I wonder if they ll bury me in long sleeves So that no one sees the bloody slits I often feel alone but I know I m not alone in this Too often we act like we don t see but the ugly truth is that we will lose quite a few like this to the ugliness of suicide s abyss When rather then ask what s wrong we assume that emotions will bounce back like a ping pong Don t ask what you could have done for me then by the time you muster up the courage I ll already been long dead Those demons in my head they thrashed about with such violence I thought I was screaming but I guess my screams were silent

102 P a g e Working For The Opposition By Nelson De La Cruz What you are right now is not what you ll be forever How you feel right now is not how you ll feel forever After all what are feelings and beings anyway Transcending obstacles transforming as we speak Attempting to shape shift our beliefs To give us the idea that it s reality You are your worst enemy Don t let the other side victimize you You re only to be compared to who you were yesterday You loved me yesterday Today you re working for the opposition Keep your vision on the mission The outside world doesn t need any help bringing you down The validation comes from yourself Don t go on the search anywhere else You are both the one withdrawing and depositing Raise the value Don t bounce your own check Take that to the bank What s your rationale anyway Yesterday above the clouds head high Today looking down red eye You need to stop being a career criminal under your own critical district attorney You your own co defendants when your personality switches to be the jury Different sides of you are different crimes of you Morals and standards is all that is permanent All else is temporary The frames of the mind flicker between scenes Positioning you to play your part Unapologetically If you hold back anything it s a domino detrimental act Causing the cast to question your lead role Even you too in fact Beating yourself up is jumping yourself There s nothing they can do to me compared to my own scrutiny Your thoughts become words We too old for any identity crisis You know who you are and who s your truest rival It s only the other side of you trying to neutralize you What s understood is not spoken Why you think they hear your thoughts

103 P a g e Words By Chris Daubert Subtle words fall Like icicles Onto a salted street Some may burn And some may hurt While others just melt away Words Absent illogical Inconsequential and of little meaning Roll like water Heavy words crash Like insects Against a passing car All are forceful All are heard Until we acquiesce to the will of the hive Words Harsh weighty All encompassing Make our eyes swell

104 P a g e A Poem for Poe By Ashley R Jones I have always been a creepy girl drawn to darkness and things in the unusual I like to call myself a modern witch A woman fascinated by the oddities of existence I ve had my fair share of dealings with death and the joys of life When I pick up a pen my mind wanders into thoughts so odd yet creative Poe you are my inspiration the source of my fascination The giver of chills and writer of thoughts that stimulate the imagination Praise for Poe I admire your challenges to write about the strange and fantastic violence others wouldn t dare to entertain Poe you are my mentor in the realm of writing Swimming through the unfamiliar channels seeking light in the murkiness in the ocean of creativity The Raven so haunting and inspiring I give you praise I long to find my most memorable piece of written art finding my own voice while using yours to guide me has been a beautiful experience A poem for Poe Wandering through your Philadelphia home I find myself enjoying the history of you Walking the very steps you took gliding my hands on the walls of the rooms hoping to collect a small ounce of your energy to keep

105 P a g e I Wonder By Joshua Surita For as long as I could remember I always wanted to be a classroom teacher And I witnessed my parents blaze a trail as they passed a baton of motivation because Well it runs in the family So when I graduated from Penn State in 2015 with in a degree in Special Education I knew there would be plenty of opportunities waiting Like endless grading Minimal breaks and Meetings with frustrated parental faces Teenagers facing low grades While embracing high grade traces of depression But never once did I expect a lesson On how I should strategically Run hide or fight an active intruder Who possibly packed and attached a strap to an AR with a couple mags Just to make every single pupil pixel stop and freeze like When my internet connection lags Kids exchanging backpacks for body bags While Mom and Dads try to grasp the phantom limb of a child they now lack And it s sad That if I hear a sound that mimics a firecracker I should think twice about continuing my lesson plan and double back back And I wonder if I ll ever have to use the wasp spray in my class to defend my students one day I wonder how I might actually respond if lives were at stake with courage or cowardice I wonder whether the downloaded knowledge from hours of trainings and videos will ever lead to application Or remain under my eye s cloud iCloud of all these hypothetical situations or scenarios That I only contemplate but are really scary though I mean statistically speaking The chances are very low But I m a human being who honestly fears bullets in my body over God s wrath on my very soul So please keep your pallets ready to sip sip sip Because I m a poet who preps a fresh cup of truth for your lips and it s very bold So allow me to keep grinding Now some are finding The problem is gun control Possibly background checks While others elect that it s mental health issues that we must seek to address Maybe it s the correlation of violent video games played

106 P a g e Or it could just be the manner in which the shooter was raised Oh we could stay on this conversation route for days and days But we re only left at a dead end for that final destination Until we find a recalculation out like Waze So let me help you steer clear of assumptions like an unwanted backseat driver See most people in this room believe that we humans are inherently good And therefore the nut case anomalies of mass killers are simply outliers and that s normally understood But what if I told you that we re all naturally flawed And realize my exhales reek of sin But we cover it up with breath mints of good deeds just minimize ours Coupled with catchy cliches like I know I m not perfect or Only God can judge me Actually scratch that We think there ain t even a god above me But maybe I m not clear Maybe I m just getting too deep in this Well let me just boil things down and dig to the root like when that Berks water main split We look down on Columbine Sandy Hook Tech Stoneman That s 93 dead fam Yet all of us have the capacity to destroy life because even Jesus said anger in the heart is murder man And only reason I m still alive breathing again and again is because the grace of God hasn t said it s my time yet And whether you acknowledge it or not The truth remains clearly If God could forgive my notorious sins Then He can do the same for your stains like it s no Biggie And so I ll continue to wonder about whether we ll ever acknowledge or just continue to hide That the problem isn t outside of people but rather inside I wonder

107 P a g e Another Day By Chris Daubert Sometimes I wonder what students see As they grudgingly take their seats in anticipation Of some artificial time clock that needs punching Will they see the daily schedule or lesson objectives Or will they see me Me with all my self doubts and inadequacies Struggling to find meaning in the sometimes meaningless Each time my core trembles like a bell that s just been rung Hoping against hope that I can hide my truth Just once more Here I am a teacher Ironic in that I myself have so much to learn About love and forgiveness Struggle and triumph About life s greatest mysteries Like how in a building so overflowing with people One can feel so terribly alone isolated Like the last man on Earth The only one who sees the sun rise and give way to the moon Again I pull off a persuasive performance Again the audience has little insight into the actor s hidden world How long can this facade continue How long till the fraud is exposed Days turn into weeks and weeks into months Some things change but most do not Each and every day the cycle of uncertainty repeats itself As students find their seats Will they see the papers piling up on my desk Or the standards that have become so omnipotent on the wall Will they notice the spot where I spilled coffee on my tie Or might this be the day that I ve long feared That they might finally see me

108 P a g e Stranger By Ivan Misiura Walk with me I say to myself it s time to say goodbye Down the road well trodden by me This is not my first journey down this well known path From overuse my feet begin to bleed We three are but one sojourner me myself and I Let all others fall away If they cared they would have tried Solitude be my only companion on this day In my mind I am prisoner about this we do not lie Left to destroy myself from within The ravenous beast of my psyche torments Its dark eyes pale above its malignant grin I cower in fear or I laugh with madness silently we cry These alone dare I to my torment face One truth reviled more frightful than all To be truly alone is to be a stranger in a familiar place

109 P a g e Circo de Soltera By Jules Grace She looks down intently filling out her worksheet She looks over us thinking of her Savior and the rewards she will receive in heaven He looks back always thinking of her mother her grandmother The matriarch that came before She pauses lifts her head from the textbook She is memorizing and sets it aside to replace it with a laptop She logs in dresses up and the circus begins All of the monkeys the snakes the elephants with their long erect trunks come pouring in filling the seats of the grand tent Circo de Soltera The spotlight circles across the dusty ring and comes to rest on her shining eyes Lower the camera a little bit a little bit more a little bit more that s it The identity of the person now has been removed but not the second face lips and all The snakes singSexy your sssoul isn t needed right now we just need your disembodied hipsss her lipsss respond only to her commands safe and swing on the silks far above their fragile heads this smooth mouth is tied to your soul tied to your sensual luscious brain This body encapsulates all of your kindness and memory and you are more so much more than what these animals label you

110 P a g e Land of the Free By DayQuan Williams They say this is the land of the free I say how My mans ain t free over a handful of weed Then they legalized it and made billions now that s that s some damn trickery They say this is the home of the brave I say how My homies ain t home it s a shame They re alone and afraid They treat black babies like they re just clones to be made Like we just roam to be slaves In the trafficking of organs Then y all go to church bumping wack shit on organs Praising a god who lets his lighter babies turn kids into orphans Let one race act big and mighty like they the ones who morphin They say make America great again What they really mean is make it a place where when openly discriminate again Openly judge based on race again Openly spit in people s face again Why would you want it to be that place again if you didn t judge based on race my friend Cops out here staring in my face again Like what you looking at boy Boy I m a grown ass man you better address me correctly Even when I m not my momma dressed me specially They still gonna pick and test me before they arrest me like this is a pop quiz for jail time Officer Can t you tell I m A law abiding citizen He said Negro please I see yo skin I know how you make those dividends On the block like Scottie Pippen man Moving weight like Shaq when he s pivoting Pass the rock the like Chris and them But this is the land of the free

111 P a g e Life We Living In By Bruce Williams Jr Feel like I m winning as I m sinning hopefully forgiven Sometimes I black out thinking about what I be forgetting Hearing stories bout the struggle and always listening Help niggas out but they always turn around dissing Crackheads in the street using drugs got em tripping Broke people go to the bar just drinking and sipping Bloods still bleeding and Crips still cripping Late at night we got pigs still clipping While our community is devastated always flipping The government got money but they never giving Immigrants going home I call it free shipping Society has a heart that the government is ripping They out here trying catch us slipping So the cops can start punching and kicking We don t have time because the clock is ticking America wants the lights out while its flickering When can we ever have world peace When my brothers want to be deceased Killing each other or getting killed by the police Going to funerals to hear the pastor preach Giving speeches and eulogies Everybody s mourning about a terrible tragedy Marching our way into cemeteries So parents can see their son being buried What is going on What is going on Where the hell did we go wrong Nobody solves a problem until someone s gone I m tired of hearing the Amazing Grace song How is it amazing where there s no grace Being discriminated by a different race How you say I love you and lie in my face Stabbed in the back or strangle me with a shoelace If that s the case try to make America great Believe that Donald Trump is a saint Touching women and lil girls in their special place Degrading them raping them to get a lil taste America is full of fuck ups and suck ups Got my people in a morgue all tucked up Want to end the drug war still have rocks up You have some dudes out here trying to keep their cocks up Or locked up in the penitentiary Be in their 25 til infinity

112 P a g e I know it s wrong of me I should keep it PG But I watch TV and this is what I see

113 P a g e Hope By Xavier Care I found Hope in a loveless place Creating aspirational faith when I saw your face Mind and body shaking With hostile temptations Make me pause for meditation So I have time to understand this godly creation A choice not to act on this reflex Perceived control like an atheist with a God complex A soul bound to body But a smile untethered to this unjust reality Recognizing my mortality And amazed that you never doubted me

114 P a g e Mi F By Virna Qui ones Apost a mi f Y despert sab a que todo est perdido que las posibilidades eran 90 10 no import y contin e como si nada Apost a mi f Cuando en aquel momento que me pusieron la banda que dec a DNR do not resuscitate continue como si nada para que no se desesperan pero a n as mis hijos y los que est n en aquel cuarto continuamos hablando agotando alternativas de c mo las cosas deb an suceder Apost a mi f Y le expliqu a mis hijos donde estaba todo incluso hab a viajado a la isla y ten a todo arreglado hasta pintaron la tumba lo deje ready Apost a mi f Contin e mi vida desde la cama del hospital como si nada no llame a mi gu a espiritual pues hay otros que tambi n necesitan de Javi Apost a mi f Y decid irme con la certeza de regresar como si nada hubiera pasado mi sobrina dijo quiero orar por mi t a mi madre est devastada oro por dos minutos y me perd entre los pasillos de aquel hospital iba sola en las manos del se or Y apost a mi f Mientras pon a mis manos abiertas como las tiene el padre celestial en la cruz y simplemente cerr mis ojos sin con la mente en blanco Y apost a mi f Tres horas m s tardes abr mis ojos y pude ver la misericordia del padre celestial y el milagro que acabo de ocurrir en mi vida estoy aqu para contarlo gracias Se or

115 P a g e notes from an almost you 4 By Ruby Mora what age am I writing to oh 27 lovely and revolutionary times you re feeling overwhelmed at all the changes all the cyclical things occurring right now I can t tell you everything because you won t believe it if I say it all at once but there will be a thousand pathways a handful of glorious beings that could be and were and maybe are go ahead and feel because you are understanding more that you could have imagined at 20 that godforsaken age I wish you could tell me where your mind is at now let go let go for all that is sacred but keep pointing out the details keep the moments beside you they ll be useful one day and here s this last thing for now because you still worry too much mom will be more than fine I can promise you

116 P a g e A Stranger in the City in Four Parts By Brian James 1 A little dark humor in between sips of Cuban coffee The observation on how the freshest true can get ground up and stuffed into a lying sausage There is so much wounded nostalgia on how the city was once so great But it really wasn t that great Sure there were factories and jobs with lots of extra money to go around you could say back then the lake was full and under that surface it wasn t always clear what was going on These days the lake has been drained and now you get to see a wide variety of bottom feeders wallowing in the mud 2 Up on Fifth past the block of abandoned homes I m waiting for a friend watching light play in the soft glow of an autumn sunset yeah totally lost in a moment s daydream until I see three young men walk my way Of course the first thought is crap I m going to get robbed like it was bound to happen someday The biggest one leans into me and in a gentle voice asks hey poppie hey poppie you lost I had to laugh though I did my best not to let it sound like the laughter of relief We talked for awhile had a few more laughs found out we knew some of the same people They offered to stay with me until my friend arrived It was good reminder and lesson learned the world doesn t have to be so scary if you don t assume every face that s not like yours is dangerous guilty of something or a mask hiding an evil intent 3 The little girl had an arm She winged that ball quite a distance

117 P a g e and on the second bounce it landed at my feet She ran up giggled and said something in Spanish I tossed the ball back and quickly found myself in a game of catch She spoke again in Spanish I wisely nodded and the ball kept going back and forth Across the park her Titi her Auntie walked her way over to us The woman apologized asked if I was being bothered she explained the situation the child s mother is at work the little girl has so much energy The child interrupts the conversation and it amuses the woman She thinks your Spanish is excellent I must have blushed when I spoke Outside of a rare word or two no I don t hablar the language The woman smiles again taps the center of her chest You talk from here everyone can speak that language 4 The grass is always greener in the suburbs It s true you ve seen it but that deeper green is chemically induced It is about as natural as those huge breasts on the pole dancer but that s how it goes exaggerating the fantasies attempting to cure the low self esteem of both patron and performer

118 P a g e i hope to have a stand at an antique market when i m old have too many small sincere items By Robin Gow dad i would get up early on a Saturday blue morning the sun peering over all our objects we d to go exploring the piles of antiques spread across Adamstown s gravel parking lots a sea of trinkets resting on wooden tables quilts dad sifting through plastic tubs of old coins he was trying to find just the right one he d pick one up at a time say not it not it not it i would find a toy stand look for a bin of action figures my tiny soft hands rooting between plastic bodies it never occurred to me back then that those coins those toys belonged to someone someone held them between thumb finger with purpose tucked coin in a back pocket walked the toy people across a living room carpet where i m from we don t own anything notable though up the street someone sold a boat it lay rusting in their front yard for weeks before someone bought it for scrap metal we take pride in our antique market finds a neighbor of mine had plastic cows all over her kitchen as decorations another one collected old milk bottles he planted flowers in all of them each spring dad i once found a giant stuffed trout that i hugged all the way home as we drove winding Pennsylvanian roads what i m trying to say is i want to die by giving away whatever unique pieces i happen to own i want to set my books in stacks on a bright April morning let strangers pick through them all my old stuffed animals tired sun worn but still useful at the antique market nothing is useless the vendors walk with each other to the breakfast food stand order hash browns egg sandwiches dad i eat too sit next to each other discuss what more we d like to find

119 P a g e dad wants a world war 1 bayonet i want a nice felt hat i will be sitting there in a folding chair at my stand selling myself a hat with white fake flowers sewn into the rim she will pay in crumpled dollars a gust of wind will try to blow the hat off her head but she will catch it i will wave as she leaves to show our dad i will go home with all the trifles that no one chose load them up in a truck this is a chance to pick each one up again remember what it meant when it was new in my fingers i will consider giving up not selling any of my remaining items but i ll remind myself that this is how people like us are remembered a quiet scattering dad her drive home she sets the hat in her lap

120 P a g e today is vivid By Ruby Mora it took a long time to clear the smoke from my head to feel like each day will be different to be able to be at least a bit stronger than the demons that rent out where my negativity lives it s the peak of Spring and I feel like I m seeing so much more than what I ve been seeing the last twenty six years my newfound joy plays a role in the manifestation of my new eyes every color and the contrast of each I see with a frightening intensity

121 P a g e TRIBES

122 P a g e Narradores de Cuentos By Daniel Egusquiza Soy de donde se forjan los sue os Y envuelta en ellos dej a mis peque os Selle el miedo con el ltimo beso Deje cielos r os mares y caminos Para una madre que piensa en sus ni os no existen obst culos solo el progreso Somos narradores de cuentos que el viento Planto en surcos de ne n y cemento Ya no recuerdo los cuentos De inocentes sirenas De tristes lamentos Florece en palabras toda tu memoria Cu ntale a los ni os todas tus historias Comparte tus tradiciones Las ideas son semillas de una tierra Como el sol que con luz te ilumina Con palabras da vida a la fantas a Somos narradores de cuentos que el viento Planto en surcos de ne n y cemento Ya no recuerdo los cuentos De mis primos y del barrio O de ceder el asiento Lee libros con tus ni os Convierte en cari os todas tus palabras Que hablar Espa ol tambi n te hace libre Siendo biling e uno se supera Dales un chance en el futuro Brega duro pero no te olvides Somos narradores de cuentos que el viento Planto en surcos de ne n y cemento Ya no recuerdo los cuentos Y valores escondidos En canciones y momentos

123 P a g e Let the Poets In By Craig Czury The ship is sunk and the damage is done someone let the poets in Let the poets in on the glass slashed basketball courts in the city parks The ship is sunk with its head of steam trains smoking through the abandoned shopping outlet plywood spray painted windows The damage is all Let the poets in on the graffiti laced basement walls of the YMCA church camp The Olivet s pool table green velvet sliced up its belly with the long stiletto stroke of a stick on cue Let the needle breath misfit poets in where they belong homeless at the shelter Shuffling the hair stench paper hallways of the State Hospital with their I V pens looking for the key Staring into their home cooked rice glandules at the Puerto Rican Latin Association while listening to the broken whiplash triple tongue gunfire staccato echo off the Pagoda Let the poets in after school after a lifetime flunking school to do their homework in the darkly lit corners of the Police Athletic League Let the poets in to weave their elbow spider web rhythmic flashlights in the neo blindered eyes of Boyertown In the neo kindred eyes of this new kind of city pay off Yes from under the rubble from under the vials and casings through the debris of gaping cracks out of the bowed heads silent over a sheet of paper as if in prayer Reading turn on your lights the cockroaches will scatter Let the poets In the beginning in by saying

124 P a g e Better Place By Nelson De La Cruz I hope there is a better place For them kids that were never safe For the people who only sought getting high to levitate For who their time on earth felt blind berserk For them women who were treated like objects behind a skirt For the less fortunate them kids in the orphanage For those who fantasized about eating good but couldn t afford the shit For the wrongfully accused who spent their lives in a cage Never got to a new chapter all their life on one page How bout them people who died slaves tortured raped and beaten Passed on without even having the taste of freedom Those people who never had a chance cause of reasons that wasn t theirs Parents were too high to face their own problems how were they gonna care Even the pets that just wanted to please their owner That gave unconditional warmth but instead were treated colder For the mentally unstable that couldn t achieve nothing big cause the day to day struggle made them not want to live

125 P a g e Untitled By Jos Garcia When did we become so disconnected from our brethren What is this life that I am livin This is not at all what I envisioned You see the life that I lived it Made me question my existence It made me wonder if my life s worth livin Then it hit quick Like everything else that is matter did Cause this life that I live in Got me lovin livin Experiencing the sun kissin touchin feelings Can you feel this Do you fear this Indescribable mysteries put fear in us Generally generating emotions related to being furious Infuriating emotions of rage inflating inside Rational thought denied by emotional rampage Why Someone turn the damn page Damp page cause my damn rage got tears fallin from my damn face I fell from my faith I lost all hope The world was ending That was all he wrote

126 P a g e Black Boys Do Cry By Demetrius Candido Portalatin I feel pain yes I do feel Pain in my heart causes me to kneel I won t bow my head to say a prayer And ask for help from the man Upstairs My eyes water for those who ve Died Died for me and my black pride Head held high despite my tears Marching along despite my tears Fear of failing and a fear to fall Afraid to fail those in the stars Fearful not of prison or jail Penitentiary chances taken to escape hell I wipe my cheeks and hold my head high Ancestral pain is why black boys cry Time Every second my heart beats 8 hours a day on my feet Minutes wasted chasing green paper Years of my life lacking of flavor A decade of punching a clock One of the flock adding to stock Bonds of revenue made for an employer Lead away from destiny a dream destroyer Day to day we waste away Trading our time in return for pay As children we played a joyous time Adults longing for a piece of mind Lustful of moments spent relaxing Weeks worth of work are oh so taxing Weakened from work souls lacking of shine The will of man imprisoned by time As we age We become the stories of our days Amazed at the past we lived With every tale a piece of ourselves We give What will they tell once you re old When you die and be buried with your dreams Was your life a dream to those who seen Some grow tall but minds remain small Sometimes small men conquer all

127 P a g e Growth within reflects outside Watered with sweat blossoming pride Many will die before they re dead Inside their head from dreams they fled So never living was their life To live your movie you must pay the price Tuck your tail or live your tale What you do is what they will tell

128 P a g e Take a Stand By DayQuan Williams I m frequently waking up to clips of mothers hollering Holding dead babies then asking who were they bothering This monster called racism is still out swallowing All the black babies the cops dropped again like offerings I wonder if they re ever pondering our tolerance Like when is it enough bang I m done being moderate These are the emotions the black man bottles in Cause we were Kings and Queens if you look at a different day If I could send a letter to Africa this is what it would say They re going to bring us to Americas Whip our ass Put some fear in us Sounds fucking crazy but believe me I am serious They will divide you by shade because you are mysterious But 500 years won t keep us from breaking barriers 1000 years with muzzles I m still barking like terriers They will invent diseases and claim we are carriers Might sound convincing but don t believe what they say Cause diamonds are worth more than anything they create Africa breeded nothing but the apex predator Shakespeare had a black writer Bet they won t credit her They came after us just a change in temperature The won t touch your money if you come up to the register All this hate from color how does that even register They created the biggest religion You better remain secular Took the natives food then made us think they were blessing us Just remember this they will never treat you regular They ll befriend lions and claim that were a bigger threat Crazy how they smoke our brothers for selling a cigarette See the footage but distracted by trends on the Internet That s why my eye s wider than what s caught in a fishing net I m never distracted by trending topics I m not into that Their favorite work of art is the black man s silhouette Video said he ran away Their gun says he s still a threat They promised us some reparations but there s still no check Blacks with bud he s a thug white they call them hippies You can believe it or not but don t take a chance on Ripley s

129 P a g e Many men shoot like we got nine lives but we not fifty They lose control and leave us wrapped in bags but we not missy Catch us all and never give us a chance I call them misty Truths hard to swallow like 151 with whiskey Privilege is when you got an advantage cop see How they want me to stand for a man who owned slaves god dammit not me I ain t reciting no slave owners lyrics so I say fuck Francis Scott Key Cause if he was asked to stand for us he d be standing knock kneed They like to mistake a black friend for justified racism They like to mistake one felon for a reason to hate niggas Like to mistake our culture for yours but that s plagiarism And a man made disease is what made every black baby an AIDS victim

130 P a g e I Am By Carmen Booker It was divine timing when I came on the scene I was lovingly pulled from the earth that gives birth to queens like ripe fruit black soil underneath my feet on my eyelids and on my cheeks I said Blaaaack soil All a part of me You see I stand on the grounds of divinity The creator s thoughtful gift He gave it to be in the space my race a melanated people See I am the mother I am the mother Unlike no other Regardless to foolish scientist who clone who d try to perfect this instead they d just wreck this and couldn t get it right Even if they d stayed up all morning and stayed up all night tolling defective copies A blaspheme to our God Still my pure heart pumps blood royalty to the tips of my fingers which pulsate rhythmic vibes screaming I am the mother Kissed by the sun and raised by the phoenix I do not have intolerance to the solar rayzzzs For they welcome me and I bask in its pleasant light All the while producing more kings and queens and princes and princesses The birth from my God his right I possesses If I was anyone else I d be jealous not blessed Stay lookin in amazement and confess melanated wealth does shine Can not hocus pocus my best by a wave of a wand and steal some of my bronze I know I know Ya probally tried it before But this patent here was not bought in no store Oh please you say let me see what it is like hue ti ful beautiful man I mean bootyful A lovely envision a gift from above I be my father s right hand daughter and my name is of love You ask but why with that tone in your voice But you know who I be like prime rib to Adam s rib I be choice So you have the answer why I stand erect and so tall I am the magnificent Thee originate The mother of all Because I am the mother

131 P a g e The Color Black By Tracy Portalatin Black gives me inspiration makes me strong Black is who I am Black is what I am look into my soul Black is what you see the deeper you go the darker Black you ll see that s me Gliding like a panther roaming wild but free being Black is the answer to my true spirituality I m strolling deep and flowing wide flexing my pride yes I am a Black woman I m just trying to be me using my individuality as my only actuality in force played by real life the Black beauty is beauty a color that is such a striving force a bold color of pride a Black color of weight holding strong that color Black is me my way of life is Black

132 P a g e Orgullo By Maricelys Ruiz I m Hispanic in case you couldn t tell by the aceituna glisten of my skin You see I m made of rice and beans chuletas tostones and pig feet I come from strong women I ve watched climb the pana tree Just so we could eat I arise from guerreros who fought died and became heroes To protect the beautiful beaches admired by our pale brothers and sisters I hail from Taino and African BLUE blood because people of color were the original princes princesses chiefs and rulers Before they were killed off and bullied I was born and bred by an Island that resembles its small chiefly nocturnal arboreal frog El coqui Small yet loud enough to make you notice it I m Hispanic in case you couldn t hear the accento in my speech I freely played in and worshiped the selvas filled with exotic flowers sugar canes and cascadas that Others pay for to indulge in I captivate with the sway of my hips not only because they move with that salsa and merengue swag But because being bore from them means I come into this world already filled with love I call my home el Borinquen with pride cause I saw how huracanes like maria azotaron con mi tierra then watched as my boricuas bonded together as one para levantarse que orgullo ser hispana mi gente

133 P a g e Without Your Permission By Joshua Surita Well it s nice to meet you So what are you Like your nationality Or ethnicity Like where are you from You know what I mean My skin tone is somewhere between milk chocolate and caramel Depending on whether I ve received or have been relieved of a steady supply of Vitamin D I drink in these looks of curiosity like a high fructose orange Hi C Hearing the sweet squeak between my teeth keys which hit a high C And I wonder whether my friend in high school was just playing with me When she said Why don t you hang out with your own kind My kind Well in all my years lost in white suburbs I never found the time to change friends based on my demographic I tell people I m Latino Both sets of grandparents from Puerto Rico And even though I knew the basics like agua s and ni o In Spanish my parents and I would rarely speak though And from the earliest moments in childhood I could feel the deep well of insecurity Anytime someone would try to genuinely draw me out about my culture Or worse Look at me like I was lesser than Generations removed from my ancestors homeland So how was I to stand as a Latino when I don t speak the language And it s funny I never knew being dead in fluency Qualified me for a full phlebotomy Remove every trace of Hispanic hemoglobin inside of me Because people couldn t trace my bloodline But I can TASTE the irony yyyy Ya t sabes Because if someone wants to open the history of my food pantry I got it on lock Since birth I ve eaten lots Of rice and beans Pasteles and gandules AKA pigeon peas Pastelitos from the corner cuchi frito And I can still hear all my abuelas on the kitchen phone saying ay bendito

134 P a g e Or maybe I can prove it with my feet though Because I could dance slow with the flow before Bieber ever recorded Despacito Crespo Cruz Reyes Monchy con Dos Locos And I ain t referring to Bell s tacos But I definitely dipped into the salsa The merengue the bachata So maybe I m NOT ya Complete Boricua Times I ve been to the island a few Not a fan of Mom s sanchocho root stew The only Puerto Rican artifact I have is the flag of red white and blue But just like most items It was made in China too And I m less because I should be fluent in my family s tongue right Well fine I may end up tongue tied Yet when I find my identity on the cutting board of your opinions I can see where your tongue lies I cannot be defined by whether I am found in the glossary of anyone s acceptance other than Jesus my God Because I can flip through pages of the past where people made me feel like I was a fraud Tempted by this matchup of inside stuff I host like Amad Rashad So many shots taken A double barrel over of laughs so it s a sawed off The constant drip drop drip of my pride after I placed my head on the table of their ignorance and it got sawed off Which means I got slugged with an uppercut Or rather slugged with an uppercut Like Trinidad vs Hopkins stuff Fighting in this self defeating ring around the rosy Holding hands with the fear of men imposing These unwarranted fees So I cannot afford to people please because people s pleas Only make me feel guilty So please Allow me release these 9 syllables Joshua William Surita Or Surita it s nice to meet ya And I am Latino with or without your permission

135 P a g e Unqualified By Lisa De La Cruz is often the word I find lingering in the deepest corners of my mind I know more than anyone that no there aren t enough words in the English language to qualify me or any of us for that matter Name my birth certificate says Jose pero I know what John will get more call backs And even though at home that ll catch more flack Ya te pusiste como los gringos Address 19602 and 19605 only 3 numbers apart The different between hearing the hum of crickets or the lullaby of gunshots and ambulance cries Experience Is translating government documents from the ages of 8 18 a job I mean I didn t get paid in money But the gratitude was sufficient enough And I know from McDonald s to the hospital and Deka isn t really linear And oftentimes left me with sore feet And even tho there s food on the table I would still feel incomplete Education What does a degree measure Literally the temperature The difference between you wearing a coat Or getting salmonella from undercooked chicken But it also seems to dictate who is worthy of Respect Who woke up for those wicked 8ams And who woke up at 5 to catch the Riatero to the los pollos or the mushroom factory The degree means you email your professors with a sir or a ma am But you address the janitor or the lunch lady as I m lying you don t address them Because white collar jobs mean you made it And blue collar jobs mean you failed it And what do 4 years and 160 credits amount to Other than 50 000 of student debt And a feeling in your heart Of knowing all your future paychecks are already spent

136 P a g e On this qualifier You re damned if you do it and Damned if you don t But the paper demands a degree And doesn t care to pay you Enough to pay it back References Does my 2nd grade teacher count Because she s the one who believed in me But my managers been waiting to write me up And being late cus the bus was late isn t a valid excuse Can I trust him to say something good Or will he mess it up for me because We re understaffed And if they know I m trying to leave I ll stay stuck Why can t I put my homegirls Wanda We ve never worked together But we re the definition of ride or die Skills Whatever skills I have They don t sound good on this paper Or relevant Bilingual But I can t write it Excel Not really but I can Fake it Multi tasking Sure I ve managed To work this 9 5 And flip it to my 5 9 To work on my passions And I ve been able to Survive While feeling like I can t go on And even tho the world s against me I ve managed to smile Through it all Personality test I don t know how these questions Or whether I believe that people Are genuinely good or not Will tell you what kind of worker I am

137 P a g e And what good does it do to tell you Whether I believe people wouldn t Steal When y all going to steal from me anyway Steal my time my dignity my sanity This test is supposed to tell you what my Aptitude is So y all can figure out if I m the type Or Rivera with an attitude or not All this time spend 30 40 minutes I can t get back To bear myself on this application Just to feel inadequate But also knowing that I should be grateful To the many that can t do this step Because fake papeles can t take them this far I m in hoping that HR email Turns into an interview Turns into a job offer But I know that it won t And I just spent this time I won t get back Just so you can tell me That what I can t do is qualify Myself enough for you

138 P a g e Unidos Pero this one By Jules Grace Soy mas que un fugaz Soy mas que un unicornio Soy mas que el sexo So mas que un cuerpo Soy mas que inteligencia Soy mas que viajera Soy mas que bailarinas Soy mas que unas etiquetas Es mas lleno que vac o Es mas cerca que lejos Es mas oportunidad que incertidumbre Es mas humano que inmigrante Se escucha con los ojos Se prueba el sabor de la musica con la lengua Se mira con los manos Se experimenta con las orejas Se recuerda con la nariz Descansamos cuando bailamos Disfrutamos cuando escuchamos Comemos en silencio Miramos Soltamos mientras les encerramos

139 P a g e The Weaver By Lyn Lessig Gather the wool from over my eyes Make something nice In colors unkind Colors unlike any night that you ve known Unlike any life that would grow in the sun Piles of soul sorrow spinning and spun into thread that will whisper between finger and thumb Needling and knitting lives into gifts and the curses that they would become You sit at the wheel and it spins and it speaks The names of the dead who color your cheeks Whether you smile or whether you weep Your foot moves the treadle the bearings creak The sweaters we live in have ghosts The dead rattle chains in the lines that you wove Looming shapes held close By buttons you made out of miscarried bones But you re so but you re so and you re so seemingly small And you sew and you sew But you re unseaming it all You shake and you shake As you wait and you wait Til their breath fogs the mirror no more You take and you take As you braid and you braid the gold of their hair into yours But it s red where it pools on the floor Bleed what s left of their veins into yours Red where it pools on the floor Like the red little footprints that trace your way out the door Like the red little blink of the lives that you stole Red where they pool in baskets and drawers tidy and cold and unworn Gather the wool over my eyes

140 P a g e A shroud a veil disguising your dreams Your haunted blood Your eldritch grief May the prick of your fingers finally lay you to sleep

141 P a g e A Teacher s Heart By Kristen Thiele A bleeding heart is my cross to bear They don t leave my mind even at home Students whom I ve grown to love and who know I care It s hard to remember they re not my own Their lives are filled with so much strife Discord surrounds them at many a turn It s a turbulent life That s why teaching my kids to be good people to live with kindness and empathy Matters more than their ability to write the perfect essay Interjections and prepositions are useful parts of speech but my kids living a compassionate life matters much more to me The granola bars in my desk s bottom left drawer are available every day Because I ve spent many a restless night thinking about the hungry students here Seeing the secret stash being shared from peer to peer Makes my heart feel warm a satisfaction that can t be undid Once assigned a seat in my class they re forever my kid The smallest kindness simple snack bars help relationships form They know I care every day and each week I can only hope it lessens their storms When I give them handfuls on a Friday afternoon the coming days look less bleak So many street negatives awful headlines in the news leave perceptions skewed Sometimes fitting in be it for belonging or protection comes down to your shoes The positives are being overshadowed and that s the real crime Many a young bilingual scholar being overlooked or even forgotten in his or her prime The stereotype of being a kid from Reading needs to change its tone These kids are going places great places even if they don t believe so This city is their home It s their starting point But it does not determine where they will go I believe in you Love Miss

142 P a g e Remember By Joshua Fasig To the Marines in Okinawa Veterans still in Vietnam To the sailors on the Coastline Soldiers in the sand Each day they fight for freedom As you lift this flag Remember To Officers that died in duty Protecting our homes Risking their lives To help us save our own With honor and courage Remember She stood up for a movement By standing her ground While other pressured her She would not back down Standing for injustice Faith in being free We remember History was changed because of a Dream he would not hide Not seeing the color of skin But the contents of what s inside Standing for liberties Please America remember Remember the things that bring us close Not what tears us apart We all bleed the red white and blue And that we can t depart Together we will stand but Divided we will fall Remember

143 P a g e Together By Dr Phillip Jeffrey Tietbohl Reading is Me Reading is You A blending of hope From all that we do Heritage Culture Language and Art Respect where we come from and open your heart Differences matter They tell who we are When we work together We brighten the stars Time to connect To share what you know When we work together Reading will grow

144 P a g e The Proprietor By Ed Terrell Who am I Why am I who I am Material atmosphere of illusion Polluted concept of life Spiritual complexities struggle for consciousness Who am I Why am I who I am Before and after the birth Exploit from time immemorial Artificial imposition on the mind Stringent laws of association with the Soul Who am I Why am I who I am Superior energy inferior energy Established my normal condition of imitating Who I am why I am who I am Circumstantial opulent external service Orissa of educational education Who am I The predecessors The proprietor seeking shelter from Why I am who I am

145 P a g e Railroad Familiars By Marilyn LT Klimcho Every railroad town has them And Reading is a railroad town Grown men who step up onto A slowly moving train Step on the couplings Between the cars And alight on the street beyond Journey uninterrupted As if crossing the tracks When the gate is down Is an easy coordination Of will and body They are like a flock of sparrows Fluttering into a bush and then Taking off again without Ever disturbing a branch They move like shadows Like graceful shades Unworried by the risks Unhampered by the train I am in my car amazed paused At the railroad crossing On Franklin Street Where Seventh Street Should have been Reading is a railroad town Waiting for the gate to lift Trying to read the passing cars And the passive faces of These dusky strangers who filter Through an obstacle As if it isn t even there

146 P a g e Boys Who Pop Wheelies on Bikes Without Breaks Brakes By Anthony Orozco glyph Catch us if you can if you dare if you wanna blow past this stop sign like us like me like no helmet no hand signals no carbon fiber frame no spandex in highlighter yellow no self reflection no protection or digression through this intersection full of steel and pedestrians front wheel popped straight up like 12 o clock like midnight like catch us midflight cruising through red lights with flagrance broken glass glinting on black pavement eyesore I soar on a clear night sky hurtling exclusively the wrong way down one ways runaway slaves who repurposed their chains no underground rail only Washington and Court Streets detour us over the train everything is in transition including humans I am loyal only to the movement a fearless forward toward the tipping gorge regardless of and sometimes in opposition to the laws of traffic and laws of survival drivers suspect assume we are suicidal but maybe it just takes more for us to feel afraid for us to feel alive to feel The first people to fly were cyclists and it is one of the few things that actually makes sense anymore My nose up wings out air 90 pounds per square inch under me and I feel lifted without gas and neighborhood florists push pedals petals in high fashion designer leather but no seatbelts to fasten my nose is up and my wings are out as I feel like I could spring from Spring to Canal the street is a clear runway for takeoff and BOOM my wheel is straight up like 12 o clock like noon like putting on a show midday matinee

147 P a g e in potholed thoroughfares and in brick laid out of the way alleyways where meticulous masonry is warped like wet wood is What has been spilled here to turn straight paths crooked Roots shoot up through mortar like pistols pistils now the trees are detrimental to streets they tried to bury us but forgot we re a fistful of seeds New things take hold disrupt structure the ground swells and the rupture s organic Take to the streets because the sidewalks are manic jagged unruly urban teeth that grin even when everyone tells us we are reprehensible tells us we should be scared or miserable but we know space is physical and time is bicyclical we experience freedom in intervals only so long until we end up back here balanced on our back wheel for a moment lighter than the sick relatives and rent that rest on our shoulders for a moment we don t have to think just react for a moment defiantly joyful even at the threat of injury like the ending up in on the hood of an enemy staying alive and happy is the biggest muscle I can flex and I have legs like pistons like t shirt and one pant leg missing the dance with danger is the same old two step the beat is contagious we re just cogs in the transmission like health risk is the cost of admission rowhome windows like prisons are gated houses like cages we learn to handlebars handle bars this 21 speed mechanism helps me escape it My nose lifted wings open I give praise I am thankful for lungs that work like jet engines thankful to have witnessed the humble miracle of not getting hit today the small blessing of making it home in one piece peace I am not oblivious to the privilege in fighting up a steep hill drenched in the glow of red neon like dripping sweat steam rising off my body like gasping for air