BROWN
Tattered seats on the school bus
Planks of wood outside a shed
Damp soil at the bottom of the creek
Stains on the white tablecloth
Boots gathering dust in the closet
Oak trees lining a footpath
The hair on the head of your high school sweetheart
The porch that creaks with every step
Mud coating the knees of new jeans
Deer heads mounted on the fireplaces
Bedroom walls underneath chipping paint
The skin of the man on the news last night
Herbs drained of their will to survive
Squirrels hiding acorns underground for winter
Rich chocolate beneath a cheap wrapper
Freshly brewed coffee on the kitchen counter
Tanned leather on the cover of a Bible
Unwashed fur on a dog’s belly
Broken sticks on concrete roads
Budding saplings on the corner of the city block
Boards on the windows of a foreclosed home
Jackson Sims
The Hungry World
In an effort to control the obesity problem in America,
The government has limited each person to 1000 calories a day,
heedless of individual needs.
At first, I try to simply reduce the diet I have—one of my normal meals a day.
One bowl of Kraft Mac n’ Cheese and a chocolate chip cookie
Soon I find it does not satiate my appetite
The world becomes an endless stream of carrots and celery
Food with negative calories that don’t hurt my total
Food loses all joy
Movie theatres stop selling popcorn
Fast food restaurants become abandoned wastelands
Late at night I hand her the last Oreo the supermarket ever sold
And whisper, “This one won’t count”
She’s careful not to lose a single chocolate crumb.
Hannah Cozart
Green
The grass in my yard
The trees in the woods
The leprechaun for Lucky Charms cereal
The stripes on my jacket
The top of a pool table
The fourth color in the rainbow
The lime in my cup
The stem of a flower
The peas in my soup
The luck of the Irish
The apple apart from red
A banana that isn’t quite ready
Nature’s image for life
The taste of broccoli down my throat
The lettuce in the salad bowl
The feel of seaweed between my toes
The kale in my morning shake
The smell of hot tea
Sour grapes
A grasshopper
Jomarea Beal
In a neighborhood
In a neighborhood
full of colorful houses and tall trees
There is a school
reaching high to the sky
There are rooms
each with their own personality
One in particular on the 3rd floor
filled with old desks
A small desk in the back
a girl sits
A grey sweater
covers her small brown hands.
A pencil writes in a notebook:
“In a neighborhood”
Jazzmyne Meadows
Grey
The strands of hair weaved through the blonde
on top of my mother’s head. The
overcast sky crying its cold wet
tears on the hot summer asphalt.
The warm, soft coat on the family
cat of five years. The four walls
of my sister’s sanctuary. The tinted
blue of my grandmother’s eyes. The
breakfast gravy I share with
my family before all going our
separate way son a Saturday.
Mary Brown
Central High School
Little Rock, AR
Dates of Visit: November 16 – 18, 2016
Faculty Sponsor: Sharolyn Jones-Taylor
Grade Level: 12
Appx. Number Students Served: 38
Visiting Writers: Molly Rector, Joy Clark