I knew you when I first met you
I knew you just by looking into your eyes
Your eyes held my attention
Your smile would not let me go
I fell in love with you
Before you even spoke
We sat and talked for hours
Slowly our time was coming to an end
And I didn’t want the afternoon to stop
Because I knew you
And I would be apart again.
Our lives just would not work in this life
My heart was breaking because I knew you
Fate was being cruel to us
We didn’t even stand a chance
As much as we cared for each other
Forces were keeping us apart
No matter how hard we tried
We could not make it work
We had to say goodbye
But I am so glad I knew you
Oh, he wrote me many poems
All about my blue, blue eyes
Comparing them to flowers
And the beauty of the skies.
Well, of course, he never knew
It's my contacts that are blue.
Oh, he wrote me many poems
All about my blue, blue eyes
Comparing them to flowers
And the beauty of the skies.
Well, of course, he never knew
It's my contacts that are blue.
What I knew the darkness, hiding inside of me?
What if I knew what I would be ready to be?
What if I knew why I feel things?
What if knew why I don't have wings?
If I knew what I will change
If I knew how I will behave
If I knew why I am here
And knew the things I fear
Then I will stop trying and having fun
I will wait for the one
The day were it all ends
Thinking I couldn't have changed
or filth that blocks the current
down our town
of elongated streams
The color of clouds and milk
condensed in pipes
is not for drinking
The crows can fly
to cleaner outlets
I let the faucet run its rivers
down the drains and porcelain bowls
When I swim
in salt water of sustainable dreams
I feel effervescent and close
to lighter things
The sound of rhythmic crashing
is more than foam on sand
so is sucking for hydration,
like a mermaid beached on land
I know that I am mostly water
Water is always most of me
the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew I loved you
Elena wore a mourning veil of
lace,
To hide the smirk upon her
painted face.
Her husband, Julian,
vanished in the night,
Escaping debts and fading
from her sight.
She'd forged the letters,
framed a grand goodbye,
And told the town a cold and
clever lie.
Now Arthur, Julian's father,
held her hand,
The wealthiest landlord in the
valley's land.
He sought a partner for his
vast estate,
Within a month, the legal
scrolls were signed,
A pact of power, cunningly
entwined.
She held his arm, inheriting
the throne,
The grand estate was finally
her own.
But as she reached to claim
The iron key,
She saw a coldness in his
legacy.
Arthur smiled grimly,
opening the door,
To reveal the truth he'd held
in store.
He'd found the forgeries
she'd tried to hide,
And cast the deceitful bride
aside.
To ¦¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦ under cover of night.
To follow ¦¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ your shadow at the window.
That shadow at the window is you and no one else;
¦¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦
Do ¦¦¦ open that window behind whose curtains you're moving.
¦¦¦¦ your eyes.
I'd like to shut them with my lips.
But the window opens ¦¦¦ ¦¦¦ ¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ the breeze
which ¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦¦ balances flame and flag surrounds my escape
with its cloak.
The window opens: it's not you.
I knew it all along.
There is a Poe and raven no one knew
They were deeply in cahoots, these two
Telltale heart was unknown by Poe
But raven had a mind of glow
His ideas were stolen by his master
Poe’s mind was slick like alabaster
In the night he would urge raven awake
For his own sake, for his own sake
For raven was the brilliant poet in fact
Few know this, but I found an artifact
A diary of raven that holds the truth of this
Poe stole raven’s ideas, knowing they were bliss
I must be fascinating
to meet:
an enigma of style choices,
wild hair, and holy sneakers
a.k.a pre-k teacher
What seals the deal
is all in a facial expression,
the one I make when I am trying
to act serious
My five-year-old student
Taleen captured it perfectly:
shock mixed with horror
Recess!
It was forty years ago,
I still regret that ring in the window.
It was champagne topaz,
a precious stone in the most gorgeous shade,
cut in a most unique shape,
round but not quite,
a most subtle oval.
It was forty years ago,
I still regret that ring in the window
AP: 3rd place 2026, Honorable Mention 2026
What the Mirror Never Knew
The pain was never about attention.
It was about silence
that grew too loud
inside my head.
It was standing in a crowded room
and still feeling invisible.
It was carrying storms
in a body too tired
to keep pretending sunshine.
I wanted release,
not destruction.
I wanted the ache inside me
to have a shape,
a name,
something I could finally understand.
But pain has a way
of asking for more
while giving nothing back.
And the mirror never knew
how hard I fought
to survive myself
on the nights
nobody checked in.
Still, somewhere beneath the hurt,
there is a version of me
learning that healing
does not make me weak.
A version of me
slowly believing
I deserve gentleness too.
She gave from the garden tended with care
He gave his time was little to spare
They gave thanks for all they could share
He knew it was poisonous,
but it was all too much.
To him it was a coping mechanism.
It got him through the day.
All the things he expected
that did not turn out
the way he expected them to
tormented his sober mind.
The mind needed some sort
of a distraction, something to
put the pressure off.
Poisonous it may be,
it took the pressure off.
All the missed chances,
all the chances that were not taken,
all the losses in that moment
they did not matter.
He once cared how he looked,
but no more. If it wasn’t for it,
he would have even jumped
on to a highway, not caring what happens.
He knew it was poisonous,
but it was all too much.
The pain was too deep.
A bad seed provided him with life.
in me was free
when all four elements
worked in congruity
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