| Ari | Becca | Cassie | Emily | Frank | Gurumaan | Katie | Kim |
| Laura | Leah | Lisa | Moe | Rose | Sarah | Suzanne | Ted | Verandah |

Ari

he sat there
very close
breathing the same air I was
feeling the same space I was
I sat there
very far
breathing the same air he was
feeling the same space he was
while breaking into small pieces

Becca

I'm sorry
With teeth clenched and palms sweating
I step away
wanting so badly what you have to offer, but I see there's a bitch line and I just lost my place.

With teeth clenched and palms sweating
you say you want to burn, and I know I need to love you.
Wanting so badly what you have to offer, but I see there's a bitch line and I just lost my place.
I can't hold your head up any longer.

You say you want to burn and I know I need to love you
that tell-tale blood drips from your nose
and I can't hold your head up any longer.
I can't see you like this.

That tell-tale blood drips from your nose
as I watch you inject your veins with the only love you know.
I can't see you like this
I cannot be your angel.

As I watch you inject your veins with the only love you know
I step away.
I cannot be your angel,
I'm sorry.

Cassie
Emily

Ode To The Ground

any time I look down
I can see your face
smiling up at me.
you support me and hold me up when I am down.
your brothers, the trees, shelter me
I sit below them and water you with my tears
or cheer you with my laughter
when the sky cries on you
you hold my feet
in a cool embrace
and when my life has gone
I will join you.

Frank

Bernadette

Bernadette's mother was easily vexed
But today was not like any other.

Provocation aplenty, positions complex
Gave reason for worry to mothers.

Her little girl taken by wagon to die
The target of throngs hurling fruit.

Rancid juice flowed beside tears down her face
As angry men took up pursuit.

The hooded man led her up guillotine steps
His faceless form grimly serene.

He placed her white neck in the worn, wooden groove
Where her trembling form could be seen.

By her mother who watched the foul deed from afar
Eyes open, stricken with dread.

With a sickening thud, the act was committed
Onlookers spattered with red.

The now ghostly pale head of sweet Bernadette
Rolled from the chopping block onto the ground

And her mother whose leaden heart grief had beset
Wept sorrowful tears beside crimson profound.

Gurumaan

Poem for Mornings (No Sleep)

This is for the mornings after
movement
sprawled across warm cars
(still awake) we turn
on
the stereo
she is still dancing
in cleansing sun
in sweaty buildings
pounding with thousands of sneakered feet on one beat.
in lasers in light
this is for the dancing
girl in the morning.
(still awake)
for the first time
groggy and in
awe of
we are here all here
I am alive.
This is for car rides
are we really going home?
sometimes we aren't,
sometimes we are in
Connecticut (still) no Vermont.
Dunkin' Donuts and Store 24
become our dance floor
it is 10:00 in the morning
who are you kids anyway?
The highway stretches
smooth before us
the simple sound of
the fan begins to form a rhythm.
Feet curved into the pseudo velour seat I begin
to dream out the window
of beds; light moving in yellow
ribbons over my resting
body but I do not ask
are we there yet.

Katie

Let Spirits Speak

On the boughs of the cherry tree
branches lie the stories of
our untold pasts,
and
seldom do we climb trees anymore.
Graceful with the wind's help
they rock in simultaneous motion.

Pull a leaf and listen to what the
veins whisper;
cries of terror
precede
gasps for air
sweet air preferred over stale.

Roll under the shelter of a tree
taste their unfamiliar tongue, and
hear the spirits speaking.

Throw your clothes into the wind
releasing yourself, and your stories
The cherry branches will catch
them too.

Kim
| Ari | Becca | Cassie | Emily | Frank | Gurumaan | Katie | Kim |
| Laura | Leah | Lisa | Moe | Rose | Sarah | Suzanne | Ted | Verandah |