Forever 21

I browse the racks searching for clothes
The place smells of new shoes and credit cards
All the mannequins are dressed so nicely 
The air tastes like stale crackers as the cashier checks someone out
Desire sounds like the beeps from the register
The dress draws me in closer as it quietly screams "Pick me!"

So Typical

            In Mary Carr’s “A Blessing from my Sixteen Years' Son” the mother is starting to come to terms with her quickly growing son. In most parent child relations, the parent realizes that one moment will most likely be the last time they will be able to do a certain thing with their child. In “A Blessing from my Sixteen Years’ Son” it was that the mother was able to tuck her son into bed for the last time, probably ever. My mother and I have gone through very similar things, maybe not with the tucking in, but with other last times. This year is especially full of those moments, with me going off to college next year. Just a few weeks ago my mother and I had one of these moments. Christmas time is full of family time, one of my mom and I’s favorite Christmas activity is decorating the tree. As we were decorating it this year though, we realized that it would probably be the last time we decorated it together for a while at least. Its moments like that and the one in “A Blessing from my Sixteen Years’ Son” that you realize how much your family truly means to you.

Take a Tour of "Wheels"

            As you look deeply into the poem “Wheels” by Jim Daniels you see that Daniels is speaking of his brother, and how he had pictures of all the cars he has had. He describes the picture and what is going on in it. At the end of the poem we read that there was no camera to save him, possibly indicating a terrible event. If you just glance at the poem you will notice that it has a lot of line breaks, making the poem very thin, all hugging the left margin. You will also notice that the author says each automobile by name. The last few lines of the poem are separated from the rest of the poem, also possibly indicating a life altering event.

Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits

"More than just that Guy that Cleans for You"

If I had to come up with a bumper sticker for Jorge it would say "More than just that Guy that Cleans for You", because he is sick of people just not even acknowledging  his presence. He is sick of getting categorized and judging into being this person that the only job they can get is the janitor position that he has. He says that no one will even notice he is not there any more after he quits. He does not want people to categorize him like the do to him now. He wishes that people did not act the way they did towards him, he knows they think that he is just a janitor and he cant really do anything else, but he wants people to see through that and see that he is more than just the person that cleans up after everybody.

¿Qué es poesía?

¿Qué es poesía?, dices mientras clavas
En mi pupila tu pupila azul.
¡Qué es poesía! ¿Y tú me lo preguntas?
Poesía eres tú.

What is poetry? You say,
While staring with your soft pale blue eyes.
What is poetry? And you ask me?
Poetry is you.

Comfort in Fear

            She looked at the clock, it read 3:42. Had it really only been three minutes since the last time that she checked? Something must of gone wrong, Madison thought, something always went wrong. As she sat in the doctor’s office she noticed the plain white walls, which were like every other doctors office she had ever been to. But something about this one was different, these white walls made her feel sad, or maybe she was just feeling anxious.

            It was the first time she had been sick since she moved to Seattle from Redondo Beach. She moved there on a whim. She couldn’t take the sadness that followed her at her prior home. Every where she went, she was known. People looked at her and knew that her dad was the one that was murdered. It followed her every where, even two years later. So she had to leave. She transferred from UCLA to University of Washington, packed up, and just left, leaving her mother and younger brother. She liked it there, no one knew her as the one with the dead father, and no one felt the need to say they were “So sorry for her loss”, as if they knew what it was like. But here she had a great job, and great friends, even if she did miss her mom and brother. She was where she belonged.

            “Madison Cook?” the nurse said to the room full of people. Madison stood up and began walking over to the nurse.

“The doctor has your results.” She said in a calming voice. Madison followed as the nurse walked her back to a brand new plain white room, but this one wasn’t crowded with people. She sat up on the bed waiting for the doctor to come in. Fortunately it took no time at all before the doctor came in to read her the results of all the blood work and tests that she had taken.

“Hello Madison, my name is Doctor Jones.” He said to Madison as he looked down at his laptop.

“Hi, Dr. Jones” Madison said quickly in reply. He was handsome, she noticed, and surprisingly young, probably not much older than she was.

“So you are here today to see the results to your tests, I see.” He said in a low voice. Madison nodded, still wondering his age.

“Well I have some bad news for you; your white blood cell count is extremely low. This could be caused by a multitude of things, but we want to keep a very close eye on it, so we are going to have you come back in in a week.” Doctor Jones said in the most comforting voice Madison had ever heard anyone use.

Madison didn’t say anything, she didn’t move, she just stared blankly at the doctor. She knew what low white blood cell count meant, it meant leukemia, her grandmother had died from it, but she never thought she would get it, never in a million years. She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t, not there, not in the plain white room of the doctor’s office. Madison got up to leave, she wanted to get out of there, and she wanted to run away from all of her problems. She wanted to go see the one person that she knew could make her feel better.

“If you have any questions you can call anytime you need,” the doctor said as he wrote down his phone number, “And make sure you make another appointment at the front desk on your way out” He said as Madison took the note from the doctors hands and rushed out of the room.

When she finally got home there was a note on the island in the kitchen from her roommate, Katie. “Out shopping, hope everything is OK” it read. Madison crumpled it up and flopped on the couch. She grabbed her phone and immediately dialed Alex’s number. Alex was her best friend and boyfriend, he could make her laugh no matter what, and she definitely needed to laugh now.

“Hello” Alex said as he answered the phone.

“Come over” She said in response. Then the phone went silent and she knew he was on his way.

“Record time” Alex said as he opened the door.

It was record time, good thing because she needed him now. She ran into his warm arms and squeezed him tight. She didn’t say anything; she didn’t feel the need to say anything.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, as they walked over to the couch, Madison still squeezing tight to him.

She began to cry. She couldn’t hold it in any longer. Alex was confused, but knew not to push it, not to remind her of whatever had gone wrong. He was just there for her to be her big teddy bear, he stroked her arm. She looked up at him, into his loving eyes and stopped crying, she no longer felt the fear of the possibility of her having leukemia, but felt perfectly happy. For the rest of the day Madison laid in Alex’s arms saying nothing, doing nothing. She felt safe with him; she wished it could stay like this forever.