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should
By Amy Myers should. an ambiguous being that holds an impossible burden. it dances in the past and future. attached to the verb of the doer. they should’ve been graduating; they should’ve been traveling; they should’ve been alive… it should be over by then. should gasps for air as those around him confuse his being for selfish hope and pseudo nostalgia for a time that never existed. wishing to surrender my reality, i extend my hand to should, and he settles into my brain almost as if he should’ve been there already. should holds my mind with an aggressive, hostile grip. sadness overwhelms me, and i am now lost in…
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Nocturnal Depression
By Grace Hall Today I’ve fallen in love with the clouds And the trees And yellow I smiled freely and laughed in the face of life’s little inconveniences And became enamored with the notion that I am capable of such immense feeling. But now it’s raining And pouring It’s four in the morning And my poems are all starting to sound like cliche little nursery rhymes Although I can’t seem to care Because while the day seemed bright and full to the brim with endless possibilities The limitations of my bedroom walls Those towering shadows in the dark Feel as though they’re crushing the air out of my lungs Expelling…
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Poetry Contest Fall 2020 Winners
We’d like to congratulate the winners of our Fall 2020 poetry contest! In first place, we have “Mother Tale” by Anna Potter. In second place, “should” by Amy Myers. And in third place, “Nocturnal Depression” by Grace Hall. We’d like to thank everyone who sent in poetry for this competition for giving us the pleasure of reading all of the poems; contest winners will be contacted soon, and each of their poems will soon be uploaded onto the site.
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Sky High
By Andrew Jones My favorite ways to watch you: When you roll your back onto the couch, letting your paws stretch towards some unknown pleasure, waiting for the inevitable belly rub. When you find just the perfect plot of grass to rub and roll around in, tail like an industrial fan while you tangle every part of your body with every inch of leash I have left. That is to say, my favorite ways to watch you are the ways you’ve flipped my world over and let me drift in your Sky.
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Cardinal
by Leah Dietle * A vermillion stroke across the canvas above- before perching on a branch to rest your weary wings. Your artistry makes others green- envious of your love affair with the wind which carries you. * But my mother looks forward to your arrival- she searches for your existence outside the window. She believes as the wind carries you, you carry reunification- a spiritual messenger from those we lost. * To her- you are the afterglow as her sun sets. A beautiful melancholy- a subtle pungent sweetness infused with the dry sharpness of grief. A pinot grigio for the eyes- addicted. * She feels orphaned now- pacing in…
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Idée Fixe
By Matthew Brothers * So, you see, sigh, swallowed by shame; sickened. You swim in the cleanse, feeding the bursting red. The cycle surely starts again, and soon; you crumple and swoon. * Staring at the spectacular moon, you hope you can hold off. Don’t engage, don’t engage, don’t engage. * Euphoric seconds, that’s all she wrote, all the shame to bare for seconds. Seconds. Seconds. You engage in seconds. * The soulful swell of sorrow and disgust spew up, Siamese cats strut, pounce swift, and never feel your shame. The shame is for you and yet could spring on all, but no reaction should be the same. * At…
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Three-Sentence Stories Winners!
On Tuesday, January 28th, RockScissorsPaper participated in the Student Government Association’s Spring Involvement Fair. We met potential members, submitters, and readers! At our table, we had students participate in a three-sentence story activity. The students selected prompts out of a hat and wrote three sentences that made a story right on the spot! Below are the two best stories from the fair. Thank you to all who participated!! The boy awoke to discover that his dream may not have been a dream after all. Laying on the pillow next to him was the bloody dagger he just witnessed snatch a life in his dream. Deep down he started to realize…
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Twisted Fate
By Veronica Therrien Twisted Fate Life seemingly finds my reactions entertaining. It enjoys sitting there, watching my face grow in anger and my body crawling on my hands and knees, while hurling unexpecting surprises on my path. The only day I’m free from work, a day of possible jubilance, I end up getting lost, in the woods. The forest has always been my escape from the modern world, but apparently, life wants to twist my paradise into a nightmare. The trees softly blow in the gentle wind. I check the weather app on my phone. Seventy-seven degrees, partly sunny. I peek up. The sky thickens in gray shades.…
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Why the Sun is the Only Star in the Sky
By Maisi McIntyre It was quiet and the park was rather empty today, only a few gray clouds in sight, but the weather report did call for thunderstorms later in the evening. So hopefully I would be out of here by then. I had been dreading this day mostly because for the last twelve years of my life I had been strictly avoiding it. And what made matters worse…I would be doing this alone. It was twenty minutes past noon, which meant I had ten minutes to get my crap together, to brace for impact as I delivered what could potentially be a fatal blow. I kept checking…
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Mountains and Molehills
By Dallas Starcher Some people have a way of staying the same for decades at a time, looming mountains to the saplings that grow in the valley every year. Hair teased up into a half-hearted beehive, strawberry-white and pieced together by can after can of noxious hairspray, crime-scene tape barring the bathroom door in rows upon rows of stacked-up warning: don’t go in there, it’ll suffocate you. Jewelry jangles on her hands: a ring for every finger, gold and gleaming, as shiny as a crow’s nest after a season of stealing. Eyeshadow and blush perfectly placed, her soft lipstick outlining a mouth so thin tightrope walkers could use it for…
