Firstly, let me just explain my argument before I get called heartless or insensitive(which I certainly do agree with).  I do like animals in general; what I do not like is the idea of domestication. I think animals are useless as “friends” to humans in households- that’s not why they exist. When I state that I absolutely cannot stand puppies or kittens or toddlers or even the sweet-sticky-cuteness of both of these relatively appreciated creatures, I mean it. Why is that a bad thing? I have reasons to back up my statement, the first being:

• We tend to elevate the aesthetics that come from animals, and we ridicule them to millions of pictures, scratchy outfits, and high-end dog/cat food. We are not able to ask what these animals want, whether or not they hate ear scratches or throwing a ball monotonously back and forth; we cannot speak for these animals (obviously).
• We are allowed to eat cows, chickens, etc., but not dogs or pigeons? Is this not discriminating to the poor animals we have no heart for? That being said, I have nothing against eating animals, but I think that is extremely odd that we condone the mutilation of some animals for food, clothing, etc. and just keep others as pets.
• Secondly, pets are useless besides trying to get away from actual human connection and instead opting for a chill cat or hyperactive Yorkie. I don’t want to be misunderstood, but I think some people grow up to become “cat ladies” just because they despise human connection or feel like no one will accept them as who they are. Does this mean that this “cat lady” has cats that love her? Who can figure this out if pets can’t speak for themselves? Maybe we are hurting animals by domesticating them more that we are helping them.

Side note: (Guys I think pets are okay I just really have no other reasons for hating “cute” pets besides me just thinking they are grotesque.)

My next confession is on children- those disgusting, annoying, absolutely nasty little heathens we take pride in calling our own. I cannot stand small babies because I don’t like the idea of two people having the responsibilityto fill a newborns’ head with whatever kind of education, ideaologies, mantras, etc. they choose. This is how serial killers are formed. Don’t get me wrong, some parents do a great job of aising their child to be a responsible citizen in a community; others raise their kids to be sexist, etc. and when the child grows older that’s  all that kid will know.

Also, have you ever realized how insanely dirty children are? Toddlers eat anything that will fit into their mouth, from stale popcorn on the floor to Legos. That’s terrifying- I think that they are just warming up to learn how to eat people.

Our hearts occasionally give themselves away while we walk from class to class, from room to room, and sometimes we do not see it, but we hand out little pieces of ourselves for others to see. This is what I have garnered from all of your personalities. I will include a color I that I think represents your personality and a song that describes you to me. If I’m absolutely incorrect, tell me in the responses.

Zoe – The sweet, yet bold one. Ready to stand up to any authority at any time. Most likely has owned a goldfish more than once in her life. Most likely named every goldfish she’d ever owned something pure like Steve or Martha Mae. 16. Birthday in…. Winter?  Zoe’s favorite color is probably orange or yellow, two colors that suit her personality, in my opinion. If I had  find a song that would represent Zoe it would be Golden Dandelions by Barnes Courtney

Janey– Janey is very daring and wild within the boundaries of the limits she know she has. I think that her favorite month is in autumn, that she is interested by a sort of “Skater Aesthetic” and she would probably be “Most likely To Write Zombie Fanfiction” on Wattpad. The color I picked out for Janey is a dark earth green, the color of a forest in the morning. A song that I think of Janey when I hear it is Straightjacket Quinn XCII

Timera – Timera is a peculiar sort of person, in the way that she is incredibly underrated and overlooked at times, usually when she is the most exciting person in the room. I feel like people tend to not notice her at first because of her shy exterior, but when you become her friend you’ve got her for life?(Not sure but she seems really loyal and honest.) I really feel like her personality is a dark purple, and her song I picked is Trees by Twenty One Pilots.

Mallori – Mallori is very calming to me- she reminds me of the edge of the ocean in the morning, if that makes any sense. I feel like a sea foam green represents her personality. She is very into faith and strongly holds beliefs, but is not afraid to stand up for someone if she truly feels she needs to help them. Mallori is quirky and exciting, very original. A song I picked for her would be Northern Downpour by PATD! 

Mar – Mar is completely different than everyone on this list. She is outside of herself sometimes just because she knows herself so well, and I am intrigued by this. Her tone is confident and sometimes stubborn, but she is always kind to others and tries to walk in other peoples shoes. Mar’s personality really hits me as a bright red, but I might be wrong on this one. I really just can’t figure her out, if I’m going to be honest, which is why I appreciate her so much. My song for Mar is We Can’t Win by AZ. 

Tyler– Tyler, Tyler, Tyler. What can I say? Tyler is very open, I mean, I feel like she’s easy to read. That’s meant to sound like a compliment. She’s not fake. Tyler would probably win my award for “Worst Bad Jokes”. Tyler is like a mom to the literary group, I think. I believe Tyler’s color is best represented as a green/ blue mix. I don’t know, Tyler. Honestly I can’t get a grip on what your personality color is. But hey, here’s a song I thought you would like-Saved by Khalid

Taylor– Taylor is rad, Taylor is chill, Taylor is probably burgundy as a color. She is not afraid to tell you who she is, she is not shy when she needs to be brave. Taylor is independent and creative and reminds me of Branch off of Trolls, the movie. She is sarcastically dark, and I love it, just like I love that I have no clue what her natural hair color is. Here’s a song Taylor, I am not sure if you’ll like or not. Artic Monkeys, Crying Lightning

madison– madison is eccentric and only uses under case letters, so i will too.  madison reminds me of a big tumblr post of a person, and I mean that in a good way. she plays ukulele, which is intensely cool ,and she wins for best speaking skills. madison’s color will be lavender, and her song will be secret for the mad, dodie clark

Claire– Claire is the purest form of human I’ve met so far. She reminds me of powdered doughnuts, if powdered doughnuts could be people. She’s super nice and real, And her writing is really honest. Claire is unusual and quirky, and I just love her so much. Claire is definitely pink, like sunset/ cotton candy/ retro adorable pink. I think Claire is into all music, so I’m just going to wing this one. James Bay, If You Ever Want To Be In Love

Sidney- Sidney is a gigantic, awkward, quiet and confusing dork. Sid has many personality traits that don’t necessarily mash up to me, but they work so well together for her. For example, she likes animals and the nineties, and also jean jackets with pictures of salsa on the back, and she is not afraid to speak her mind, as long as it is at a whisper. Sid’s color is Kelly green.I think Sid might like this song, The Fugees, Killing Me Softly

Jackson– Jackson is a big weirdo, which is great. He is spastic and quiet and happy and sad all at once. There’s not much I can say about Jackson besides the fact that h is definitely a banana. Jackson’s color from me is blue , straight up the first blue that comes to your head, or maybe a slate gray. Here’s a song, Jackson. I Want To Break Free, Queen

Charlotte– Charlotte is whatever Charlotte wants to be, whenever Charlotte wants to be. She is spunky and likes to read books about badass women with swords, and  she is my best friend because I still can’t wrap my head around how stupid she is sometimes. Charlotte is the color of the sky when it rains in the morning, the clouds on a full moon, the ocean after a sunset. It’s not “navy”. I don’t know how to explain it. /here’s her song- Settle Down, The 1975

EXTRA SONGS–(THREE MORE PER PERSON)

Zoe- Primus, My Name Is Mud, Scarecrow, Counting Crows, R.E.M, Orange Crush

Janey- Naïve, The Kooks  Silence, Khalid, Magnets, Disclosure ft. Lorde, Daddy Issues, The Neighborhood

Timera- Ruby, Twenty One Pilots, RIP To My Youth, The Neighborhood, Fluorescent Adolescent, Artic Monkeys

Mallori- Habits of My Heart, Jaymes Young, , Counting Crows, Butterfly in Reverse , Madi Davis, Songbird

Mar- Formation,  Beyoncé, Paralyzed, NF , Macklemore, Drug Dealer

Tyler- American Teen, Khalid, I Fall Apart, Post Malone, I Needed You, Blackbear

Taylor-Acid Ghost, Overthinking, Kaiser Chiefs, Every Day I Love You Less And Less, Na Na Na, My Chemical Romance

Madison- , Neutral Milk Hotel, King Of Carrots Flowers Pt. 1, Gorgeous Bully, I Can See, American Poetry Club, How I Felt About Most Things

Claire– Wet, Don’t Wanna Be Your Girl, Hazy, Counting Crows 

NCT 127_ Cherry Bomb

Charlotte- Moon Tides, 1966, Fever Blanket, Daydream, Kaiser Chiefs, Ruby

Sidney- Yellow Days, A Little While  , Chelsea, Counting Crows, Coming Home, Leon Bridges

Jackson-   Counting Crows, Einstein on The Beach  ,   Piano Man, Billy Joel

What Difference Does It Make, The Smiths

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

” An Introspect of Afterlife”

meat sagging behind skin

dangling from crumpled bone

yellow carved initials in the marrow

tomorrow will our graves be given name?

call it distasteful, disgraceful,

but I slide from one shade of broken to the next

through the salt and tongue and lie and gone

bruised fingers and cracked knuckles

penetrate, disintegrate

integration the definition of our sick nature

join the army of restless rebellion to find anything but your

peace of mind

leave that behind

blink your black eyes and spit through

your blood lies

let them sit upon our teeth for a change

we are nothing more than overgrown penitence

personalities decaying as our bodies sway to a rhythm

bound and busted

its not that uncomfortable, being dead

I’ve dug my grave a million times over

and have lied in the shameful dirt

as safely as I did in that house

or not at all

the flies at first become bothersome

but after a few centuries

you get over it

 

 

The song goes like this:
I thought I saw the devil/This morning/Looking in the mirror, drop of rum on my tongue/With the warning/To help me see myself clearer
I never meant to start a fire/I never meant to make you bleed/I’ll be a better man today/I’ll be good, I’ll be good/And I’ll love the world, like I should/Yeah, I’ll be good, I’ll be good/For all of the time/That I never could/My past has tasted bitter/For years now/So I wield an iron fist/Grace is just weakness/Or so I’ve/been told/I’ve been cold, I’ve been merciless/But the blood on my hands/scares me to death/Maybe I’m waking up today/I’ll be good, I’ll be good
And I’ll love the world, like I should/I’ll be good, I’ll be good/I’ll be good, I’ll be good/For all of the light that I shut out/For all of the innocent things that/doubt/For all of the bruises I’ve caused and the tears/For all of the things/that I’ve done all these years/And all/Yeah, for all of the sparks that I stomped out/For all of the perfect things that I doubt/I’ll be good, I’ll be good
And I’ll love the world, like I should/Yeah, I’ll be good, I’ll be good
For all of the times/I never could, oh, oh-oh/Oh, oh
Oh, oh-oh/For all of the times I never could
All of the times I never could

Yes, these are simple lyrics, created for the purpose of being put to music and sung; however, I like the lyrics in poem format. My take on the song is simple and cuts deep into how I feel about certain ideologies and life in general. Someone sees themselves, they know themselves, and they hate what stands before them in the mirror each and every day. They want to change for the better, they want to be more for themselves and the people they love. They think to be strong you must avoid vulnerability, you have to hide your feelings and give the world a fictitious view of life. They shut out people they cared for, hurt them, hurt themselves, and they need more of the good things in life.
They need change, at least to make up for the hurt they’ve caused. This really connects with me; I would give anything to heal the people I’ve broken and reconnect with my better self, but that’s not always how things go. We just have to hope our future will be carved in light, so that we may go down a path that gives instead of receives.

 

I really just wanted to post my monologue on angels because I enjoyed creating this piece. It is in the POV of a demon. (I’m also thinking of using this piece for the September’s coffee house theme, Glow.)

They fall from heaven hungry. Their voices recall bleeding to death without wound and starch- white lilies placed in windowsills. Be afraid, for they are everywhere unseen, a cathedral of mirrored walls with no reflections. Unholy mouths will drawl their names in offering and silence will resound as an answer. Do not be fooled; there is threat within the tranquility. You think of soft pink cheeks and ivory and yearning light- all I can see is the red spit and unused bibles below hotel beds. Heaven’s holiness hits like damp cotton sheets hung from laundry lines, but can catch your lungs full of ichor all the same. You’ve never tasted the carnage they create; it stills burns on my tongue like confession, like prayer. Listen well when I say there are horns beneath their halos and supernovas writhing within their stars. You wonder if the warm glow of their god-like skin is the sun, not realizing it’s the rising of flames. Paradoxical promises lie in the wings. Be careful not to ruffle their feathers, otherwise you could end up in ash.

This piece was really fun for me to make becaue I love writing about things I do not understand, one of them being the existential matter of angelic forces. I truly think that if angels are real, this is how they would be shown, or should be. So many people hear about things they do not understand and do even challenge the fact that not everyone knows what they are talking about most of the time. I mean, angels might just be mythical creatures nonexistent in the real world, but this does not mean all angels have to follow the suit of conformity. Dark, forboding, chaotic; this is what I think of when I hear angel. I believe heaven and hell are a lot closer than we at first realize, demons and angels one and the same. That’s kind of what I wanted to represent in this- unforgiving order heightened by uncontrollable power, overwhelming and soft as well.  Angels are heavenly, but sometimes I think we only see heaven as good and pure when in reality we do not know. I liked taking this monologue from the POV of a demon because the sides are sort of flipped, roles changed.

 

 

“Where Are The Poems For Dictators?” the title reads. I pick it up precariously, not sure I want to read more or trash the book as a good deed. I read on anyway, indulging in some of the best poetry I’ve ever read, the works of E. Ethelbert Miller. His poetry is political and stubborn, leaving little room to support the antagonists in his stories. He does very well at creating worlds within stanzas.

One poem in the book I found that really stood out to me was about a little girl, simply titled, Juanita.  

“when she was small she wore the lipstick of her mother    face made older with powder     like the pictures of movie stars she cut from magazines    The blonde ones she put on the wall     next to Jesus”

Another one of my favorites, called Madonna, went like this:

“four children on a blanket   eight children in a room   I sleep with my eyes open      the belly of José swollen like a half moon  there is no milk in my breasts to comfort his needs   yesterday Miguel walked to the city to beg for food    it was his birthday   I had no gift    I prayed that Miguel would not steal    the soldiers wait in doorways    they bring us bullets”

Both of these poems are dealing with political unrest in Nicaragua around the time Ethelbert wrote this collection of poetry. The first discusses the idolization small children hold for their mentors and celebrity figures or famous adults around the time they grow up, sometimes changing themselves to try and be more like these people. Most of the children he speaks of do not know what it is like to be wanted or even looked up upon, so they strive to be like the women they see in magazines and yearn for a more refined life.

The second is about the hardships of growing up in a third world country and being poor, focusing especially on a family with eight children, all of them in need of food and a bed to sleep in. The mother talks of not having enough money to buy food or even a gift for her son’s birthday, and she prays to herself that her son does not try to steal to survive, because the military soldiers have no mercy on small children.

After doing some research I discovered Miller comes from African- American descent; he is a teacher and poet,  and the heart he pours into his work is inspiring. His work taught me to continue to read old poetry books I find in thrift stores from now on, even if they have sketchy names; I never know what great stories might lie beneath the pages.

 

 

 

I can remember sitting in my third grade science class, reading from my textbook,  and having trouble pronouncing the word “eclipse”. What did it mean? It sounded pretty scary to me. Later on in the year I would find out that an eclipse is, in my teacher’s words, “when the moon swallows the sun whole and then spits it back out”. I was intrigued, and made sure to find out when the moon was planning on doing this. She told me sometime when I was in high school, around 2017. It was a long time away, but I always remembered to keep an eye out for this natural phenomenon on the news as I grew up.

it’s finally here, and I’m so excited. My family bought glasses to watch the sun disappear in the sky as the moon attempted to “swallow” it. I’ve been on NASA’s webpage all week waiting for the livestream of the eclipse. This is a rare event that only occurs about once every thirty years, and were lucky enough to experience it with the help of modern technology. The eclipse supposedly will pass over Oregon around 10:00, traveling over entire states in less than thirty minutes. The passing of the eclipse over America should last around ninety minutes, expected to be in the Carolinas around 2:45. Mississippi doesn’t have the ideal spot to see the full eclipse, but Brookhaven should be able barely make out the black dot over the sun as it passes us.

Millions of families and travelers worldwide are expected to travel to the heart of North America to see the eclipse. One of the most optimal places to see the eclipse is around Nashville, Tennessee.

Travelers must know the rules of viewing the eclipse to safely watch the amazing event. The sun’s harmful rays are actually heightened around the corners of the eclipse, making retina damage a serious threat to all who gaze at the sight. You should avoid looking directly at the sun during an eclipse, rather, opt to watch via NASA’s satellite camera recording the entire process.

I’ve been waiting for this since I realized what the word eclipse even meant, and now that it’s here, I don’t know how I will feel about it once it’s over. This is a historical event, and it could only happen once or twice in someone’s lifetime, so make sure everyone you know is ready to witness the moon swallowing the sun and spitting it back into the sky.

Everyone has a particular place in their life where they feel the most   comfortable. This place could physical, such as your childhood bedroom, or it could be a state of mind that you travel to for inner peace and better mental health. Comfort zones sound amazing- I mean, what’s not to love about being carefree? However, there is a time and place for every comfort zone, and, sometimes, we all stay in our little bubbles of protection rather than pushing ourselves to be braver, bolder,  and more adventurous in our daily lives.

I’ll give you an example. Picture this: You have always had the same friends, the same schedule in your daily life, same job routine.  You are in your so called “comfort zone”, happy with the niche you have carved out for yourself. One day, you get a job opportunity from the company of your dreams. All expenses to move are paid for, and you would receive a better income, along with the chance to grow as an individual.  Still, you can’t  seem to make yourself go. You struggle with the fact you’ll be on your own in a new place, having to climb the ladder at work all over again; it just doesn’t feel worth it.

This is where most people rely on their stable conditions as an excuse to stay in their comfort zones-  their self-satisfaction  stands in the way of their options.  These people would choose to be “just okay” with the way things are instead of chancing their future, only because they are afraid of the challenges that might lie ahead; they believe the burden of change will be too much for them.

Let’s get one thing straight. This decision will make or break a person. Most often, the people who choose to reside in their comfort zones will continue to use this as an excuse for every passing opportunity until there are no chances left and they are eternally forced to remain in the state they put themselves in. Complacency kills creativity, and we are more often than not so satisfied with being average that we overlook the possibilities our future would hold when we take advantage of our surrounding choices.

Robert Frost said it best when he stated, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by.” It made all the difference for him, why couldn’t that happen for us?