If you’ve walked down the upstairs hallway in the last few days, you may have noticed the pieces of writing that now line the walls outside of Ms. Shifflette’s room. This new collage is courtesy of the AMHS Creative Writing Club, with members offered the opportunity to submit short pieces of poetry or prose for the project.

Below is a compiled version of all the poetry featured in the collage. Make sure to congratulate your friends on their work, and check out the prose submissions in my other recent article.

What Happened to Time?

I used to not know time
He simply watched over me
Letting me know the world
Before he took it away

Morning blew through Heaven
Leading, leaving time to fray
To be thrown out the window
To be drenched in the warm, spring rain

Soaked, he crept back indoors
But paused at the awning
He watched me play
As if the days never passed

Daylight melted into dusk, afraid to overstay
And time strode behind me, softly
I felt him grasp his hands
On my shoulders, soaking me too

-A. G. Butcher, 12th Grade

Testimony
this… this
this is- this is
this is my testimony for the case
of the people versus the distinguished business
rooster declared Innocent of certain proceedings
and I am here to make my statement
i don’t want to tell you-
to tell you my story, but
i know… i know i need to.
well, to tell you the truth:
the truth, so, I didn’t want-…
To come here today
but i- I know someone.
And his son is so
afraid to take the
shortcut home because
Of this person and don’t pretend you don’t
Know what this is because I have seen it before.
And I will tell everyone what happened because even if
I’m absent to the proceedings tomorrow, they
will know. And even if I am silenced, there is a chance
that the next one will have a few more chips to bet, so
so I will tell you this. This is what happened.

-Kira Hamrick, 10th Grade

Enough
Do you know why you are here?
My body, crashed.

Plush. Warmth. Love.
Mirror, no longer a cage.
Reflection.

My thighs, my arms, my belly.
My clothes, my hair, my shoes.
My lips, my eyelashes, my cheekbones.
Which is it?
Beautiful. Mine.

You are not enough.
Yes I am.

-Maya Pai, 12th Grade

A Poem For Our Daughters, Part One
Femininity like footsteps, proceeding,
Receding. A tide
On the tongue, a declaration
Of an atom bomb swallowed whole:
Here I am一wait. A gasp into oblivion,
Turn the channel. Click.
Do you remember your mother’s face the first time she held you?

You push forward with knees slotted inwards,
Phantom aches brush reaching fists.
Brittle bones strain against the ground and you see
Not the fish below, but the birds overhead.
Your mother’s finger under your chin, I know,
She says. Eyes nestled between wrinkles like roses.

-Molly Tippey, 12th Grade

Thank you to everyone in the club who submitted work, and to everyone who has taken the time to appreciate the submissions! If you’re interested in joining the club next year, contact Ms. Shifflette or junior president-elect Zane Hull.